Goatfish

Birmingham has a large fresh-food market at the centre of the town. During weekdays I cannot go there as it is open only during the normal office-hour. Saturday is my day of investigate it.

The market closes at 4 to 5 o’clock depending on individual stalls, so if you go there after 3, you have better chance of getting bargain.

One Saturday afternoon, when I was walking around the market without having in mind what exactly to buy, I was stopped by a fishmonger offering a plate of fish for 5 quid.

I saw four colourful fish of various size, that I have never cooked or eaten. Asked the fishman what were they, and I was told they were “goatfish”. I was not sure how to cook, but the attraction of unknown was too powerful.




Back at home, I started to do some research about goatfish and discovered they have white meat with delicate taste, as they were in a same family as red mullets. They are often eaten in curry or deep fried. By the way, I learned also that they are called goatfish because they have a goat-beard like thing under their chin.




I decided to go for deep-frying, but I also tried bake in oven; this is oven cooked version. It was actually quite nice, but as the meat itself does not have strong flavour, deep-frying has the effect of concentrating enhancing it.

It was an interesting experiment.