Maria Kye, cook at Charlie's Fish Market in Aiken, SC, wasn't the least bit fazed when I asked for some fried mullet at 9am. She said she often has it for breakfast. So she picked a couple of handsome hunks from the cooler...

... dredged them in cornmeal and tossed them into a huge cast iron skillet full of boiling oil...

... hoisted them from the oil with tongs, shook off excess grease, and put them down on a sheet of butcher paper (which was laid out atop a newspaper page).

She dressed them with mustard sauce and hot sauce and topped them with a couple of slices of white bread.

She gathered up the butcher paper around the sandwich, then the newsprint around the butcher paper:

I followed the mullet with a piece of Maria's chocolate pineapple upside down cake. It was a fine meal, for well under $10.