Good'n Ugly

Good’n Ugly

At noon today, Malinda and Kristen are coming over for Saturday dinner with us, and we are having shrimp grits. Grits are a native species here, as are the shrimp from local Bay and Gulf waters. For the shrimp, we went to Tarpon Dock fish market, where for the first time in a display case I saw lionfish, an ugly, ugly sea creature.


We bought one lionfish. The young man behind the counter filleted it and Linda cooked it for our supper last night, stovetop in a pan with a little olive oil, a pat of butter, and a touch of Old Bay seasoning. Delicious. Firm, white meat. They’re selling lionfish cheap compared to other seafood. We have wild Pacific salmon about once a week, and the lionfish are so tasty we’ll add them to our menu. Ugly was what originally turned Mayflower pilgrims off to lobster, and here’s a chance to eat something good and ugly while it’s cheap.  

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/marine-species/lionfish/

Five-thirty in the morning, nice out, slightest breath of breeze, dark, boats heading out into the glassy flat Bay from the marinas here in St. Andrews.

TW