Kaimoana

My mind is awhirl with so many things that before I tell you all about this kaimoana business I wanted to say a few things.  First off, last night was the first night in about 6 months that all 4 of us slept through the night completely without even a stir!  Unbelievable.  I thought my days of sleeplessness would last forever!  Secondly, I am so excited to finally have finished my crocheted ripple blanket; it's warm, thick, cozy and colorful.  As soon as I put down my hook from that project I couldn't resist getting started on a kimono wrap sweater for my daughter.  I am totally obsessed and worked feverishly on it all day yesterday even avoiding the housework that needs to be done.  For some that may sound normal but I have OCD about cleaning my house and I love making it a dustless, crumb less, sparkling clean haven for my family.  More to come about my crochet projects as well as another tasty tutorial for tomorrow.  In the meantime......

So if anyone knows the typical Kiwi bloke, they would agree that these men are obsessed with kaimoana, or in English, foods from the sea.  I have never met another male species that is so intent on collecting, harvesting, fishing, spearing, diving, shooting or catching edible things from the sea.  I am serious here.  Every man I know either has a boat or wants a boat so they can be some sort of caveman and 'get food for family' (picture tarzan here).  A few weekends ago while the children and I were still in California my husband went out fishing with a friend.  Rob has a tinny and a rowboat, lucky him.  He and his wife and 2 girls just moved here from London although Rob is a Kiwi.  And a true Kiwi at that.  He used to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning in London just to go look at the fish in the fish market.  Because if you can't actually go fishing, just looking at freshly caught fish is the next best thing apparently.  So Pete and Rob went out fishing. Rob catches a kahawhai that needs to be bled and after he cuts under the gills to bleed it, he slices it open and rips out the heart and pops it in his mouth and swallows.  Yes you heard me, he ate the 'pretty close to still beating' heart. About 2 minutes later Pete catches a kahawhai and Rob looks at him as if 'your turn now buddy' so Pete obligingly grabs the heart and down the hatch.  Gross!  What the?  Why would you do that?  Anyway the following weekend Pete went up to a friends bach for the night.  Pete and Dave go out for a dive and Dave scores his first crayfish.  Hallelujah, many phone calls later to boast to friends, he then cooked and proudly served it with a homemade wasabi mayonnaise.  What a hero!  When I asked Pete if he got any crays he answered, "no but I got some mussels off the rocks".  Well what a relief that you weren't empty handed then, you would have been a serious failure had you not come up with something.  He probably would have boiled up seaweed and made a salad if there had not been any mussels.  You think I am joking but he probably would have.  So you might be wondering what we did with that cute little fish I caught this weekend.  Well I put it in some foil with a few lemon slices, salt and pepper, olive oil and a good sprinkle of sumac and baked it for ten minutes.  Very delightful indeed....or so they told me.