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Monkeyface Eel: Now a Thing

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Cute? See a bigger version here. Photo: Michael Macor/Chron

“Imagine the big bulging eyes of Marty Feldman, the bloated collagen lips of performance artist Amanda Lepore, and a lumpy rhino ridge on the head that ends in a blunt bulldog nose.” That’s how the Chron’s Carey Sweet describes the monkeyface eel, as served by chef Mateo Granados at Mateo’s Cocina Latina in Healdsburg. The monkeyface eel is not, in fact, an eel, but a fish in the rock prickleback family, and it’s been appearing on various Bay Area menus lately, including at Nojo, where it’s often fileted and tempura-fried, rather than served whole-roasted and face intact, in a Mediterranean style, the way Granados has been doing it. We can’t ourselves attest to how it tastes just yet, but it sure is awfully cute! [Chron]

Monkeyface Eel: Now a Thing