We have often eaten and enjoyed mahi-mahi in restaurants. When it was offered in the super-market we purchased some, since it is not always available. A cook book devoted to seafood only had no mention whatsoever of mahi-mahi, which caused us to look it up in the dictionary. The meaning of the word proved to be the “flesh of a dolphin.” Please tell us it was a typo… we are not feeling very well right now.
Mahi-mahi is indeed, the flesh of a dolphin, more specifically, a dolphin fish. As listed in the menu of a nearby restaurant:
Mahi-Mahi Dolphin (fish, not Flipper)
So a dolphin fish is not the same thing as a dolphin. As far as I know, dolphin is not available anywhere in the US.
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Mahimahi (no hyphen) is the Hawaiian name for the dolphin fish sometimes refered to as yellow fin tuna (coryphaena hippuris). So you needent worry about eating flipper. Who incedentally is a bottlenose dolphin (tursea truncatus), a protected species probably not found on a menu in the US. Not legally anyway.
Here in Florida, dolphin fish is sometimes called “dorado” because it has a gold underside. “Mahi Mahi” is also used over here in most seafood restaurants.
If you truly prefer the taste of real mammalian dolphin, open up a can of tuna. 
“…send lawyers, guns, and money…”
Warren ZevonWe used to catch dophin fish in the Gulf of Mexico - they’re beautiful fish, terrific fighters, and, according to fish eaters, delicious. My friends and relatives were always excited when we brought some home because it wasn’t available in any of the stores.
We usually called it ‘chicken dolphin’ to distinguish it from ‘flipper’, and because (yeah,you guessed it)people claim it tastes just like chicken.
Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the hydrant.
Obviously, restaurateurs don’t want to call it “dolphinfish” on the menu, because they couldn’t give it away if they did. The euphonious Hawaiian term for the fish was used instead.
Too many Americans are stupid about words that closely resemble other words…consider the huge flap a while back that engulfed a politician who used the word “niggardly” to describe some budgetary issue and was roasted alive by the great unwashed, none of whom apparently own a dictionary. The poor pedantic sap was forced to resign, even though he DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING WRONG. All I can say is God must love morons judging from how many He made.
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Da Chef
Hairy, I want to make sure you know that I wasn’t referring to you when I spoke of all the stupid people. Your actions proclaim you as a not-stupid: when faced with a name you didn’t know, you looked it up. When the definition made you uneasy, you sought clarification. The world needs more like you.
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef
My mother flipped out on me once for eating “dolphin fish”, until I explained to her the difference between dolphins and true fishes. Dolphins, she said, were too cute to eat.
Fast-forward three years. We are on a ferry, watching the “jumpers” play on the sea. Her family used to eat “jumpers”. Good meat it was, too. It was only when a tourist started talking about the “dolphins” that she made the connection…
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Just for the record, I don’t think mahi-mahi and yellowfin tuna are the same. I see both for sale often here in San Diego and they are quite different.
cher’s right…according to Barron’s FOOD LOVER’S COMPANION (favored reference source for Chef Troy) Yellowfin tuna is also known as “ahi” (ah ha…no wonder it’s confusing), and is more strongly-flavored than ordinary albacore tuna.
The same book also states that the Hawaiian term “Mahi Mahi” for “dolphinfish” or “dorado” is becoming more widespread, to avoid misunderstanding for the mammal.
Uke
That’ll teach me to post off the top of my head. The Hawaiian name for albacore (yellowfin) tuna is indeed ahi. Cripes I live there for gods sake, I oughtta remember these things. Especially since fish here are sold almost exclusivly under their Hawaiian name. It is refered to as some kind of tuna by some though (bluefin, sailfin?) but the term is inacurate and not widely used.
Have you read The Old Man and the Sea? While battling the Marlin the OM, in order to keep his strength up, lays out a line with his free hand, hooks a dolphin and eats it (raw). Very manly, but obviously a fish, not a fifty-pound mammal is caught.
The image of the old chap sinking his teeth into the carcass of an Atlantic saddleback is pretty funny, though.
if dolphins are so smart, why do they keep gettin’ stuck in them nets!
Seriously, on the subject of fish, TRY NOT TO EAT SWORDFISH.
–88% of the swordfish of caught have not had a chance to reproduce.
–Average weight of a swordfish caught in the 60’s was 300 pounds; today it is only 90 pounds.
–Long liners and drift neters are going after them in their spawning areas, about 50% are thrown back dead.
Since we have brought up the Hawaiian names for the others, I’ll add that the name for swordfish is a’u. (say ow)
Usefull info if you plan to avoid it while visiting the Aloha State.
And then, of course, there’s the famous humuhumunukunukuapua’a.
I got a picture of it when I visited the Waikiki Aquarium in early December.
Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@kozmo.com
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
E.Ghandi, where abouts do you live (ie which island/side of island)? (I grew up SE of Hilo in the sticks, so I’m just curious).
Dangit.
There goes my joke about ordering the tuna free mahi mahi…
“Rolling with the dopes you know. Rolling with the wrong gun on you”
“I dream that she aims to be the bloom upon my misery”
- I Miss The Girl Soul Coughing
Uh, I think dolphins run more like 200 - 300 pounds.
I caught a bull-dolphin (male dolphinfish - they have a big bony crest on their head that females lack) that measured 56 inches long. He must have weighed close to 45 lbs. The world record at the time was 78 inches, so the dolphinfish can get on up there.
Caught a sailfish one time, too - in a dip net! Spied a school of some odd-looking little fish alongside the boat and scooped one up to see what they were - it was a sailfish about 6 inches long! We took a picture before putting him back in the water, but it didn’t come out clear enough to tell what it was.
Got some cool pics of a whale shark checking out the boat, too.
Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the hydrant.
A’u is the Hawaii name for the various marlins; a’u ku is the name for swordfish. Never heard anyone here in Hawaii refer to mahimahi as any kind of tuna, unless explaining to a dolphin-wary tourist…
O le mea a tamaali’i fa’asala, a o le mea a tufanua fa’alumaina.
So what does a humuhumunukunukuapua’a taste like. . .or are they even edible? Do they require wider menus?
Ray (Hunuwaihilei’ana beach enihau?)