Caught a Puffer fish off LAFB in Hampton VA.

You can eat Fugu, you just need to know which parts are safe to eat.
I've eaten Fugu many times.

 

I bet you weren't the one who decided which parts were safe to eat. Nothing spoils the appetite like wondering whether you could die or be violently ill from eating suspect fish, something that also applies to the ciguatera toxin found in several tropical fish species. Some people have been known to keep cats purely to test the safety of the catch, cats apparently being more prone to its effects than humans.

 

Er...um...

 

Beware of any odd tasting appetizers served with it, unless you you want to be the next Solomon Grundy. I actually do know a real live Haitian medicine man.

Hmm. That might explain a certain lack of motivation I've been feeling for the last ten years or so.

 

Puffer fish are claimed to be the second most poisonous vertebrate behind a certain frog species. Presumably this deters predation, but it is not uncommon for them to become the prey of high-end predators such as sailfish. Makes you wonder if the flesh of the sailfish is not then tainted, or if they are immune to the toxin.

 

Depends on the puffer fish.

 

I'll leave the toads and puffer fish and blow fish to the more adventurous.

 

The puffer fish found in the chesapeake..the northern puffer is not poisonous. Its a tasty fish . When cleaned you get two big slabs of tasty white meat.

The localname was sea squab.

 

Interesting to hear that they aren't poisonous, I guess in this part of the world it is taken as gospel that such fish are to be strictly avoided, but apparently this is not true elsewhere. I have caught some massive ones offshore that were so silver along the flanks they looked as if chrome-plated, but you'd not dream of keeping and eating one.

 

It seems a lot of captive lionfish were accidentally released into the Atlantic during Hurricane Andrew back in '92.

 

Where do we send the flowers?

 

Your chef must be very skilled with his fillet knife.

 

That hadn't occurred to me, but it sounds reasonable.

 

When I was growing up on eastern Long Island they were common during some parts of the year and considered very desirable. They are very easy to clean and yield a tasty drumstick-like portion.
There were times when you could stand on the beach and reel them in almost as fast as you could cast into the water.
I've eaten hundreds of them and would again.