Mama's Fish House, Maui

Aloha from Hawaii! Here I am as a bridesmaid in another wedding. Please do not mistake this as sarcastic or displeased. I love weddings, I love traveling, I love being a part of a celebration, I love family (definitely my own but certainly meeting others’) and most of all I love love.There was a movie that came out a few years ago called 27 Dresses about a young lady who is a perpetual bridesmaid. She has a whole closet dedicated to bridesmaid’s dresses, etc. I haven’t actually seen the movie…why would I? It’s my life.I didn’t have too much time to explore so the first day we landed (I was traveling with the maid of honor), I booked us a reservation for lunch at a restaurant that I had heard—from fellow travelers and review sites/blogs—was a great place to eat on Maui, Mama’s Fish House.Our table wasn’t quite ready when we arrived so we ordered a couple Mai Tais from the bar and sipped our cocktails and admired the gorgeous orchids floating around the ice. What an amazing thing, to be in a place so abundant with flowers that every cocktail, lei, and countless other decorations are made of fresh flowers. That and the perfect climate make it obvious why they call it paradise. Once seated, we were brought an adorable little loaf of honey wheat bread and a side dish of butter. Bikini season or not, I love butter on my bread. The perfect accompaniment to a cocktail and a gorgeous view.I had never seen this before on a menu but Mama’s puts the name of the fisherman who caught the fish on the menu. Evidently, Mama’s has a team of fishermen who go out fishing every day and everything served is caught within the past twenty-four hours. It’s not a large menu but it certainly is fresh.We split Papa’s sashimi as an appetizer and it was great, thick slices of three different fish each topped with some pickled fruit or vegetable or a jam and each with a different salt alongside—smoked, pink, and black. The waitress recommended we dip each slice of fish in its respective salt. It was a pretty cool experience, a crunch of salt that triggers that warm salivary response along with the soft meaty taste of the cool fish.I ordered the monchong (deep sea pomfret) a white fish served with black rice topped with onion chutney and vegetables—bock choy, broccoli, and carrots—with a ginger glaze. It was delicious. Melt in your mouth type of fish and perfectly al dente vegetables. The best way to welcome our vacation and enjoy a meal before the ensuing wedding activities.You may have heard the word aloha, it is a Hawaiian greeting used for hello and goodbye but one thing I noticed while on the island of Maui was the notion of “living aloha.” Aloha means more than simply hello or goodbye, it means love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, and grace. Living aloha means going through life with compassion, love, mercy, affection, and peace. And what a beautiful thing. I leave you with a proverb I learned while in the Aloha State, Kahuna nui hale kealohalani Makua which means, love all you see, including yourself. So, I urge you to live aloha. We may not have orchids in all our cocktails here and tropical weather but we don’t have it so bad. Let’s embrace a little aloha in Monterey and love all we see, including ourselves.