Eating in Hawaii, as anyone knows who’s been here, is a blessed experience. Unbelievable fish, bright veggies, memorable Mai Tais. It’s the land of plenty and the garden of Eden, unlimited food at your fingertips.

But the more savvy among us will know that the numbers, the stats, disagree slightly with this reputation. Our land of plenty sees food that’s brought in via plane and boat, for the most part. Hawaii still imports something like 90 percent of the food we rave about. A garden of Eden, importing 90 percent of its food. What gives?

What gives are a bunch of things, ranging from socio-economic issues and general consumer tastes for burgers, to the current global economy based on instantly filling consumer requests. Truthfully, I’m too dumb to explain these big issue things, but smart enough to know not to try.

But one thing I do know is no matter how much I love and respect the Japanese and Portuguese and Chinese and (cough) American food influence here, and how they collide to make the Hawaiian food we all know and love, the thing I love the most are the ingredients, the stuff that just lives and grows here.

Because even though we import 90 percent of our food, we live on some islands overfilled with pigs and goats and deer and we are surrounded by an ocean full of fish.

There’s a local fish market, that thanks to the weirdly dry and calm winter this year, has been filled with fish that are only catchable when the conditions are just right. One of the special fish I’ve been buying is uku, a type of snapper. It’s another learning experience to learn how to butcher, to cook, to enjoy what’s on offer right around me.

Most recently it was a 9-pound fish, which the shop told me would yield about 5 lbs of fish. I did a Google search to remind myself how to break down a whole fish (again, learning here), then filleted a side to make sashimi blocks and eat raw. We had it with a little soy sauce and wasabi (thanks to that Japanese influence). The next night, with the other side of the fish, we fillet it, cut steaks, then tucked the steaks in banana leaves with coconut cream and red curry paste made from stuff growing on our farm. We were going for this recipe, but using just the things around us. Not exact, not perfect, but hyper local and damn delicious.

Rally, it’s fun to try to use what’s here. Because there is an abundance, if you look for it. Great farmers, passionate ranchers, skilled hunters, lifelong fishermen. That probably goes for most places in the world. —Paul Brewer