The move towards eating locally produced food is a commendable one and many restaurants on the Island are embracing the practice wherever possible. Admittedly, these islands are not particularly conducive to agriculture and the range of locally grown fresh produce is limited, but fresh seafood is something that it should be reasonably easy to source locally.

 Not so when it comes to sashimi grade fish, according to Aaron Molloy, executive chef at Karma, who is both passionate and highly knowledgeable about quality seafood, having worked in a sashimi grade fish factory growing up.

 “Our water in Cayman is really warm. It’s great for swimming but it’s too warm for good sashimi-grade fish,” he explains. “Local yellowtail tuna, mahi or wahoo is great for grilling or cooking, but the flesh is not as tight as cold water fish. When you cut into it, it’s not firm.”

 Warm water fish, he says, are soft-fleshed. The colder the water a fish lives in, the tighter the muscles and the firmer the flesh, all which make them better for eating raw. “When you eat sashimi it should be crunchy,” he says, “that’s something most people haven’t had before.”

 But for great sushi or sashimi, there is more to it than simply sourcing cold water fish.

 The way the fish is handled is also key. Most of the time large, industrial fishing trawlers dump tonnes and tonnes of fish on top of one another in holds where they are stored for days on end.

 The fish is handled roughly and by the time it reaches the customer’s plate, the flesh is bruised and battered, resulting in a soft, mushy texture.

 “For sashimi grade fish you would handle it like you would handle a baby - in the most delicate way possible,” says Chef Aaron.

 This is why he and the team at Karma are so pleased to have secured a deal with a company in Hawaii – where the water is cold, deep and very clean - who will regularly supply them with the best quality fresh seafood available. Their supplies are in such high demand it has taken Chef Aaron six months to get them to agree to ship to Cayman.

 Each and every fish from this supplier is line caught – a very sustainable fishing method – and because the company owns the fishing boats, they have total control over how the fish is handled.

 With fishing trips not lasting more than 36 hours, and the ability to ship anywhere in the world within 24 hours, this is some of the freshest fish you will find anywhere.

 “We received our latest delivery on a Thursday morning. The fishing boat had come in the previous Tuesday evening,” says Aaron. The fish arrives carefully packaged in aluminium blankets and dry ice, ensuring the cold chain is never broken. Ensuring the fish is kept at a constant 33 or 34 degrees Fahrenheit locks in freshness. “Typically, in the average sushi restaurant the fish you eat is 8, 9, 10 days out of the water,” he says. “It’s been kept on ice, but it doesn’t compare to something that has been handled well and been out of the water for just a day or two.”

 Indeed, the tendency people have to drown their sushi or sashimi in soy sauce and wasabi is often because they don’t like the fishy smell, Aaron explains. But fish that is truly fresh does not smell.

 There are very few places in all of North America, he says, where one can get the kind of fresh fish he has managed to secure. “When you eat it, it makes you high,” he enthuses. “You feel amazing. It’s incredible.”

 Currently the Karma kitchen receives one shipment a week from Hawaii but will increase to two per week in high season. The sashimi menu will therefore change weekly, to make the best of this freshest of fresh fish.

 Among some of the regular types of fish they receive will be grade one or two ahi tuna, harachi, ono (a Pacific wahoo), whole Hawaiian blue prawns and tasime salmon – a sustainably ranched (as opposed to farmed) salmon.

 By mid-October the menu for the new season will be in effect and in addition to the regularly changing sashimi options, Chef Aaron will be adding more Izakaya (Japanese style tapas) small plates for sharing. If raw fish is not your thing, the new menu will feature a typically eclectic mix of Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Middle Eastern dishes in addition to a handful of all-American (burger-shaped) options. WH