Over at Heeia fishpond, it’s a great time to focus on the future. Last year, the site reached a milestone when volunteers from across the island fixed a 50-year-old hole in the pond’s wall. The hole, the result of a 1965 flood, was a huge obstacle to the restoration of the ancient site as a space where small fish can thrive and feed the community.

On Saturday, five chefs will cook up food sourced directly from the fishpond at a fundraiser for Paepae o Heeia, an organization dedicated to maintaining and managing the fishpond.

The lineup: Andrew Le (of The Pig &the Lady) will make pho using mullet; Mark Noguchi (Pili Group) fried papio and kaku barracuda with limu shots; Lee Anne Wong (Koko Head Cafe) hee, or octopus, salad; Ed Kenney (Town Hospitality Group) Samoan crab; and Kealoha Domingo (NuiKealoha) ulu, or breadfruit, cobbler. Chef Lindsey Ozawa, now a kalo farmer on neighboring land for the organization Kakoo Oiwi, is dusting off his chef’s hat just for the event; he is using land-based ingredients to deliver lemongrass roast pig and poi.

Hiilei Kawelo, Paepae’s executive director, says mullet is especially significant.

“It’s the whole point of why fishponds were cultivated,” she said. “They were built to grow herbivorous (plant-eating) fish, and mullet was one of the primary fish sought after to be in fishponds. The other was awa (milkfish). These fish eat algae, so they work with the ecosystem of the pond.”

Paepae hopes that activation of the pond since the wall’s repair will increase the mullet population and encourage a resurgence of consumption.

Chef Le’s use of mullet in his pho dish is sure to be skillful, something all guests will savor but few would attempt at home. But Kawelo grew up eating mullet in simple dishes.

“In their 30s, my dad and my uncles used to catch mullet commercially to make side money,” she said. “My dad cooked it a number of ways: steamed Chinese-style with shoyu and hot peanut oil poured over it, black-bean style, in soup and baked with mayonnaise. I remember the mullet soup: chunks of fish, ginger, tomato, onion and squash — so good.”

The appeal of mullet, she says, is its moistness. It can also be an oily fish, a quality that adds to its tastiness. Kawelo’s father, Galbraith “Gabby” Kawelo, says the trick to catching an oily mullet is fishing at the right time of the year, in the fall. This is when the fish have fattened up to prepare for spawning. In fact, there’s a closed season on fishing mullet from December to March, its spawning season.

As to the other ingredients from the fishpond, they include invasive items such as specific types of limu and Samoan crab, and fish such as papio and kaku (barracuda) that are native yet not preferred in the pond because they are predators. “These are considered by-catch,” said Kawelo.

“This dinner is a good sign for things to come in the next couple of years,” said Kawelo. “We’re in the mode now where we’re allowing the pond to do what it does: attract small fish to grow up in the pond.”

Chinese-style Steamed Mullet

Courtesy Galbraith “Gabby” Kawelo

2-pound whole mullet

Salt, to taste

1/4 cup peanut oil or cooking oil

1/4 cup soy sauce (Aloha brand preferred)

>> Garnish:

1/4 cup thinly sliced ginger

1/4 cup sliced chung choy (salted turnip), rinsed well before slicing

3 sprigs green onion, chopped

1 bunch cilantro (Chinese parsley), chopped in 2-inch pieces

Sprinkle mullet with salt. Steam about 20 minutes; if it’s bigger, slice in half so it fits flat in steamer, and increase cooking time accordingly.

Remove from steamer to a plate. Garnish with ginger, chung choy and green onion; cover everything with cilantro.

In small pot, heat oil. When it smokes, drizzle over cilantro. Drizzle with soy sauce. Serves 2 to 4.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on 4 servings and not including salt to taste): 410 calories, 22 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 110 mg cholesterol, greater than 1000 mg sodium, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 1 g sugar, 46 g protein