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barboúni

μπαρμπούνι

red mullets

Mullus barbatus. Red mullets or goatfish are one of the most delicious and prized fish in Greece, and usually simply lightly fried or grilled.

Mosaic with maritime scenes, from the Via Panisperna in Rome, late 2nd - early Ist century BC, it once decorated the pool of a Roman bath, Centrale Montemartini, Rome

In Imperial Rome, there was a fad for red mullet, comparable to the 17th-century tulip mania that gripped Europe. Patricians raised them in special fish ponds and hand-fed them, and it was essential to present the living mullets in glass jars at banquets to prove their freshness and to enable guests to watch them turn red as they died.

Fish and Seafood

Text © Dana Facaros

Images by Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, pkhere CC0 Public Domain