Fish so ugly only a grill could love

I was prepping for my regular segment on Tampabay’s CBS 10, and decided to feature seafood, just so I could show off this brag photo! I went to Cox Seafood, a local fishmonger in Tampa, highly recommended by my friends the Culinary Sherpas, to pick up some fresh seafood to talk about on-air.

Since I’m all about teaching Andrew and Nathan my work so that I can retire in five years, I brought Nathan with me to the fishmarket and CBS studios.

At the market, Nathan and I chose the plump scallops, oysters and some clams. Lately, Nathan’s been obsessed with fish*, and Mrs. Cox told me that I should show Sheephead fish, as it just arrived and is in season. Wow, was that sucker fresh! It’s grayish, white and black thick stripes were gleaming in the light, so into the bag it went.

My buddies over at CBS are always so friendly to my kids, that I’m considering bringing my kids on set every day, duct taping a video camera to their forehead and calling it Kids Incorporated (hey, remember that show?)

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(video from CBS starts automatically after jump)

And my goodness. Last time I was on, we had a tall, long table on set that I could stand behind and you could only see me belly up. So, naturally, I wore like the ittiest bittiest tighest miniskirt and flip flops. When I got on set this day, no tall table.

Uh yeah, WARDROBE FAIL.

Well, it wasn’t until the camera got a REALLY CLOSE UP SHOT of the fish that I realized this was one UGLY MOTHER OF A SMIRKING GOAT.

Sheephead fish

This freaky fish had better teeth than most people! But, hey, he flossed well, no cavities, just a slight overbite, kinda reminded me of Mater.

SAY CHHHEEEEEESE!

ugly sheephead fish teeth

After the show, I took Ugly home and decided that as beastly as he looks, I had to love him like my own….and gave him to husband to grill.

fishy_032_web

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Those Salts!

almond_cardamom_sea_salt_sm I know you want to try them! Twitter friend, Janna, Secret Stash Salts sent me all those neat salts that you saw in the TV segment. Perfect timing, as I got the salts the morning of the show and decided to use them. If you’ve got an artisan product you’d like me to feature on television, contact me via Twitter!

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*Here’s why Nathan is obsessed with fish! My friend, Judy took all of us fishing! That’s her husband and lovely girls in the slideshow.

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25 Comments

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  2. you’re on TV!

    Reply
  3. Hello!
    Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
    PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
    See you!
    Your, Raiul Baztepo

    Reply
  4. Jaden, that is such a weird looking fish. Those set of teeth….why do they look like that? They look like my drawings of fishies when I was 4, I thought all animals smiled like us lol. Anyway, I bet it tastes better than it looks 🙂

    Reply
  5. hola… we need to catch up chicka. i’ll be in Tampa at the end of next month covering a food and musical festival so we must must connect.
    and, do u remember a similar pic I took with a ugly fugly fish in Trinidad! 🙂 lol. good lord that fish was ugly, only the monger could love him! 🙂

    hugz.

    Reply
  6. It’s fun to watch you on TV. You are clearly having a good time. Love that shot of the fish’s mug. Teeth!

    Reply
  7. Gorgeous fish segment, you looked good too. 😉

    Ever see a wolf fish? Aiyaa, makes sheepshead fish look pretty.

    Nice job. Am so enjoying reading everyone’s blogs about the Club Med vaca. I don’t think I realized David is such a good writer, too.

    What a great crew. And Diane is my new girl crush. Can anyone be so talented and so nice – well now TWO Asian sisters making me look slouchy!

    Inspiring really, despite all my whining!

    Cheers to you all!

    Reply
  8. What a cool segment. Love the pic of you & the fish!

    Reply
  9. I love the title of this post! 🙂 And man, those teeth would scare the bejeesus out of me.

    Reply
  10. You rock!!!

    Reply
  11. LOVE Cox’s Seafood. The very best the Tampa Bay has to offer. I am doing some food styling for them this week (free of charge) for their new website. Anything I can do to help them succeed. We need more locally owned markets where the owners actually care about the product they sell and what their customers are consuming.

    Btw, Nathan looks too cute. I bet Faye ate him up!

    xxoo
    Michelle

    Reply
  12. I can’t stop laughing at this fish! I need the number to his orthodontist. Crap, his teeth are so much prettier than mine, just like you said. It even has pretty lips too….but needs a nose job.
    I love the clip and think you look great in white! If you consider that a wardrobe malfunction, then I would love to malfunct like that everyday!

    Reply
  13. Can’t believe the teeth on the fish! Hmmmm… Fish dentistry?

    Great segment, Jaden, and those salts look terrific!

    Reply
  14. Love the segment Jaden, you RAWK! Think the fish is kinda cute, totally in a Mater kinda way. xoxo

    Reply
  15. Oh my gosh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen fish teeth like that. Ugly indeed!

    Reply
  16. Mmmmmm! I love all types of fish and that one does not scare me at all. You should see the teeth on a hog snapper!!! We need to go fishing again! Let’s take all the kids out on a fishing boat and do some deep sea stuff. That would be fun!!!

    Reply
  17. Fun pics!

    I like the animated slideshow, too. Some of my happiest childhood memories are from fishing trips.

    Gonna get me some of that salt.

    Reply
  18. The freakin’ camera man kept on tryin to sneak an upskirt shot of you…the PERV!

    On to checking freshness for fish & seafood…great tips and I would underline using your sense of smell (should only smell of the sea) and for fish, also check/lift the gills. It should be a bright red colour underneath.

    The sheephead looks alot like a Porgy…any similarity in taste?

    Reply
  19. Love that shot of you and the fish, Jaden! It’s a cute fish, not ugly at all — in fact it reminds me of the sweet and funny Lab pup staying with us. It has nice white teeth, too. 😀

    Reply
  20. Yes, totally ugly fish… but probably amazingly delicious! That was totally a cute outfit, but NOT designed for sitting!

    Reply

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