THEY SAY BEAUTY is only skin deep, but when you’re talking coral trout, it goes far deeper than most. With bright, bursting red/ orange skin artfully dotted with pale-blue spots and a delicate blue eyeliner around its big, black eye, it’s one of the most beautiful species in Australian tropical waters.
But as all good chefs know, coral trout’s real beauty lies beneath the surface, where wonderfully wobbly, gelatinous, sweet, delicate flesh resides. It’s so good, it’s considered by many to be at the luxury end of a deep-blue diet, where lobsters, caviar and oysters are found.
“Coral trout is, without doubt, one of my all-time-favourite special-occasion fish!” exclaims fish-o-phile John Susman, of Fishtales seafood consultancy.
This bottom-dwelling beauty fossicks around inshore and coastal reefs and islands in Australia’s tropical…
