Market - Fish

Monte Carlo market. I stopped to buy a fish for dinner and asked the fishmonger the name of the eel-like creature with the decorative skin - and if I could take a photo. A few minutes later, he was arranging his best fish on this white board for me to photograph. He explained that his brother is the fisherman and he sells the fish and a few minutes later, I found myself with an invitation to go out on the boat one day to take photographs!

I just love people who take such obvious pride in what their sell or what they do. You can see the care he is taking to artistically arrange the fish for me to photograph. What a guy!

The eel-like fish is called murene (moray eel) which he explained is a carnivorous fish - a type of conger eel - but one with really vicious teeth. The ancient Romans bred this fish and used to satisfy its voracious appetite by feeding it a wicked slave or two. The big red fish is called chapon - another name for rascasse, which is the scorpion fish or hog-fish, much prized in the making of Bouillabaise, as is the eel. The smaller red fish is a rouget (red mullet) .