This month our Executive Chef, Roger Friggieri participated in a local competition called Chef’s Challenge. Roger was provided with four items including the “lampuki” with which he had to create something special.
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The lampuka is Malta’s most popular Autumn fish, with its delicate and coveted meat ready to be prepared in a variety of ways. The lampuki season, which starts at the end of August and runs well into November, brings out early-morning hawkers with their typical cry of “lampuki hajjin” (which means ‘lampuki alive’), plying their fresh wares to the Maltese housewives.
This particular fish, also known as the dorado or mahi-mahi, migrates past Malta and Gozo during the late Summer and Autumn. The local fishing technique used is rather particular. Palm fronds are cut and woven into flat rafts, which are then taken out to sea by the fishermen aboard their luzzu boats. The raft is put into position and left a while. Once the sun is high in the sky, the frond rafts create a lovely shaded area, which the lampuki find hard to resist. Sheltering under it in large shoals, the lampuki are then quickly caught with surrounding nets, to be then sold early next morning on the Maltese market. This method, known as kannizzati, has changed little over the past two millennia.
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