Years ago in Samoa we considered parrot fish a real treat. Clean but kept whole, steamed or baked until almost done, loaded with chopped vegetables on top, AND THEN to finish cooking, pour very hot sesame oil across the top and the veggies. The oil and the steam it produces finishes cooking the meat and adds a wonderful flavor!
Only one problem - more than one person has ended up with ciguatera from parrots. Becasuse they munch reef all day long, they are quite likely to have the toxins in their tissues in some amount. Maybe not much, but that is highly dependent on the reef on which they live. AND, it also matters how suseptible the person who eats it is. I've known people who had previous poisoning become sick after just one bite, while others eat it regularly with no problems. The same holds for barracuda, some snappers, and scads of other reef fish. Thank God I've never come down with it - its miserable. These days, my ingestion of reef fish, raw oysters, urchins, fugu, and other risky delicacies is much suppressed. Its just too darned hard to recover as you get older!
Only one problem - more than one person has ended up with ciguatera from parrots. Becasuse they munch reef all day long, they are quite likely to have the toxins in their tissues in some amount. Maybe not much, but that is highly dependent on the reef on which they live. AND, it also matters how suseptible the person who eats it is. I've known people who had previous poisoning become sick after just one bite, while others eat it regularly with no problems. The same holds for barracuda, some snappers, and scads of other reef fish. Thank God I've never come down with it - its miserable. These days, my ingestion of reef fish, raw oysters, urchins, fugu, and other risky delicacies is much suppressed. Its just too darned hard to recover as you get older!
