Opihi with Garlic-Shoyu Butter

ʻOpihi are Hawaiian limpets — three endemic species, ʻālinalina, makaiauli and koʻele — and they live clamped to the rock in the surge zone where the waves actually break. That's the entire reason they cost what they cost, and the reason they're called iʻa make, the fish of death: people have been swept off the rocks picking them. At a lūʻau a bowl of ʻopihi is the dish that disappears first and gets talked about longest.

If you're picking your own, know the rules and the etiquette. Hawaii sets a minimum shell size of 1 1/4 inches, and the practice among people who want ʻopihi to still exist is to take a few from a rock and move on — never strip one clean. Most are eaten raw with a little Hawaiian salt, which is the traditional and best way. Grilling them in the shell is the other way: butter, garlic, shoyu, straight onto the coals. The cook is ninety seconds. There is no version of this that benefits from more time.

Ingredients

• 2 dozen ʻopihi in the shell, scrubbed under cold running water
• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 3 garlic cloves, minced fine
• 1 Tbsp shoyu
• A splash of chili pepper water
• Hawaiian salt, coarse
• Lime wedges

Cook Sequence

1. Mash the butter with the garlic, shoyu, and chili pepper water into a compound butter. Keep it soft enough to spoon.
2. Burn kiawe chunks down to an even bed of glowing coals — no flame, no smoke plume. This is a searing fire, not a smoking fire.
3. Scrub the shells and set the ʻopihi shell-down directly on the grate, meat facing up. Work in one layer so you can watch every one.
4. A small spoon of the garlic-shoyu butter into each shell as soon as they're set. It'll pool around the meat and start bubbling in about 30 seconds.
5. 90 seconds to 2 minutes total. Pull them the moment the meat turns opaque and firms at the edge — a limpet held even 30 seconds too long goes to rubber and doesn't come back.
6. Off with tongs, keeping the butter in the shell. A pinch of Hawaiian salt, a squeeze of lime, and eat them standing at the pit. There will not be leftovers.

Round Out the Plate

• Poi — the traditional partner at any lūʻau table
• Lomi Lomi Salmon — cold, salty, sharp — the right contrast