PrintThe Worst Seafood Display Ever? Or the Most Brilliant? You Decide
Longtime SE reader Jeff S. alerts us to an "awful seafood display" he snapped a picture of at the Whole Foods on Houston Street in New York City—the one where they filmed parts of Top Chef this season.
Jeff calls it awful; I call it brilliant. After all, it's a dog(fish) eat dog(fish)* world out there. You have to wonder if the fishmonger was crafting a subtle tableaux that illustrates evolution in action or if he or she was just having fun.
Jeff was kind enough to bury photo as link-text in his blog post about it, but we're more brazen and show just part of it here. Click through to see the entire thing. Hope you've eaten already!
*Yes, I know it's a monkfish, not a dogfish. Poetic license invoked.
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25 Comments:
brills.
lokamotion at 7:32PM on 02/18/09
Looks like NYC is getting like San Francisco - where everyone is offended by everything. That, and the fact that the food blogsphere is so overcrowded that a moronic story like this gets play.
I wish they would have done it with a cow and a chicken. Now THAT would be cool.
f650gsd at 8:54PM on 02/18/09
I know exactly the sort of retail monotony that display was born of....I approve for the sanity of all retail hell workers everywhere!
feriorrenna at 8:58PM on 02/18/09
Brilliant! This would offend the sort of people that eat chicken, but not if it has bones in it, or can't take the sight of a fish head, but love them some salmon fillets. I approve this display! Although sadly those people probably aren't in a food store to begin with, but screw them anyway.
zackola at 9:06PM on 02/18/09
Displays like this are common in Paris, where everyone is an artist. This is what the ocean looks like underneath the waves.
Likeswords at 9:29PM on 02/18/09
I vote awesome
weheartfood at 9:58PM on 02/18/09
don't see what there is to cry about that
alexeatsworld at 10:44PM on 02/18/09
I vote brilliant. And delicious.
shoneyjoe at 12:06AM on 02/19/09
Worst seafood display ever would be like fish split open and guts hanging out everywhere, or something equally as disgusting.
This? This is funny. I vote brilliant.
blisseau at 1:08AM on 02/19/09
being afraid of fish, i have to say this is one of the most terrifying things ive ever seen. im so, so sorry i looked at it right before i went to bed... but curiousity killed the cat: i saw 'worst seafood display' at the bottom of the screen and just HAD to scroll down even though i KNEW it would scare the crap out of me. *shudders*
redzerostar at 2:32AM on 02/19/09
Too bad it wasn't a dogfish eating a catfish. I hear and see worse vomit coming out of our local CBS news channel while it plays at work in the waiting area.
Cassaendra at 7:24AM on 02/19/09
In the only-semi-related-but-awesome-anyway category, my friend Chewy once found a whole, fairly large crab inside a squid that she was cleaning. Here's the post, complete with a picture of the little guy.
Michele Humes at 7:57AM on 02/19/09
That's awesome. It's a shame it probably only lasted a few moments before someone complained.
people that complain about this are likely the same ones who think eating fish off the bone (with head attached) is for 'savages''.
Harlock_jds at 8:39AM on 02/19/09
I can't say I'd buy either fish. But I sure would laugh and point.
Laurel E at 9:57AM on 02/19/09
This needs to be posted, obviously:
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~complex/images/ch06f06.jpg
Zachary Sachs at 10:55AM on 02/19/09
Seriously, how is this even a topic? Sensitive much?
Kerosena at 11:06AM on 02/19/09
@Zachary- Dude, Hieronymus Bosch is one crazy mofo!
greyrussian at 11:48AM on 02/19/09
I was disturbed when I saw that (in person, at Whole Foods). Not that I'm squeamish ... this is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect to get fired for doing if I worked there!
The trouble is the context. The quality of the seafood at Whole Foods (at Houston St. where I shop every week, and at all the other stores I've visited) is relentlessly grim. The fish all appears to be 48 hours older than it aught to be, all the time. The gap in quality between the sea food department and the produce department is disturbing. It seems that either no one knows ANYTHING about fish, or else no one gives a shit.
Against the background of this profound neglect, jokes like the fish eating the fish don't seem inspired. They seem like attention put in all the wrong places. And in this case the result is particularly gruesome, because it looks less like fish eating fish than old corpse eating old corpse.
paulraphael at 12:58PM on 02/19/09
Sorry but that has been done to death.
Pointy at 1:13PM on 02/19/09
I'm sorry...but I guess I don't get it unless there's some health worries about one dead fish being in the mouth of another dead fish.
If the fish there is old/ poor quality, then that's an issue. But I don't see how that relates to this display.
lawofmurphy at 1:42PM on 02/19/09
Hey! This is Jeff from Elephant Larry, the fellow who took the picture.
Just to mention to the 3 or 4 commenters that took issue with the post - I don't really think it was life-alteringly horrifying, I just thought it was worth snapping a picture. I co-write a blog for a comedy group. I think overemphasizing my disgust probably for makes better reading than "hey, this is a picture that I think is somewhat weird." :)
I'll say this: those two fish are probably not getting sold.
Thanks for the link, Adam! You rock. And Bosch rocks.
jas126 at 1:47PM on 02/19/09
Um, ok except comedy is, you know, funny. If that was the purpose of the post anyway.
The picture, on the other hand, is hilarious. I would totally buy from a fishmonger with that sense of humor.
Amandarama at 2:13PM on 02/19/09
@Amandarama: I think you answered your own question. The picture was funny. Seems like it belongs on a comedy blog.
Adam Kuban at 2:27PM on 02/19/09
@Adam - Yes. The picture was funny.
Amandarama at 3:36PM on 02/19/09
I can relate to paulraphael - I'm a working chef, New York foodie, and worked in gourmet food stores for seven years. The quality of the fish that is available in the wholesale markets is dismal, and by the time it gets to the retailer it is too old to sell. It comes from all over the world, is caught by questionable methods, or farm-raised under often questionable conditions. I don't eat much fish these days unless i catch it.
fishchef408 at 11:49PM on 09/18/09