8 + 5 + 5

Misoyaki Mahi Mahi:
Tetrametrical
Trochaicity

The first line is the name of a simple fish dish (mahi mahi with a miso sauce) associated with Hawaii; googling on the name will get you recipes (one pointing out that you can use the sauce with any white fish or chicken or pork) and also references to restaurants on Oahu and Kauai (and Edmonton, Alberta, and Kwajalein) offering the dish. I came across it on the “Aloha Friday” menu of the Gordon Biersch restaurant in Palo Alto.

“Misoyaki Mahi Mahi” is a line of perfect trochaic tetrameter (and it has that nice near-rhyme between yaki and mahi, plus the repetition of mahi), and it sticks in your mind like the Pachelbel Canon. SW SW SW SW (S for strong, W for weak) is succeeded by two lines of SW SWW, with a dactylic tinge to then (and a bit of alliteration).

[The Hawaiian name of the dolphin-fish — a fish, not the mammalian dolphin — is variously spelled hyphenated (mahi-mahi), solid (mahimahi), or separated (mahi mahi).]

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