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Once in La Rochelle I ate it rolled into great bacon and baked in the oven with grenaille potatoes. Succulent!
But nothing can beat "Ankimo"!
Robert-Gilles
In Spanish seafood restaurants, they'll have a fish display open for all to see and there they'll have a whole monkfish, big gaping razortoothed mouth and all. I dunno. It didn't seem to deter anybody. Still you're right, it's as yummy as it is ugly.
Robert - the idea of bacon-wrapped monkfish sounds ideal. I can't wait to try this with pancetta (naturally) but you are right of course. Ankimo rules supreme!
Susan - thanks for the descriptive visual, I love it whenever there's reference to how it's done elsewhere. Makes me wanna fly to Spain, pronto! Remember Bimbo bread? 
Brava! I love your take on laulau here -- you got a wonderful glaze despite it not being grilled. And, oooh, seeing those lovely naked chunks wading in warm butter is doubly tempting, too.
BTW, did you have to skin that tail yourself? In France, they always had the scary whole fish on display but only sold fillets, so I never had to do it myself. Was it hard to skin?
That is one ugly fish! But delicious that's for sure 
I've only had monk fish in restaurants. I'm still too intimidated to cook it myself. I'd feel awful if I messed it up and had paid an arm and a leg for it.
That is one scary looking fish!
I haven't had monk fish in years! I do love the "faux lobster" taste of it, and the texture. But that face, it's gotta go!!!
manju - it took a few deft moves with a filet knife but overall I'd say it was easy to remove the skin from the tail piece. The connective tissue seemed to be more at the tail end and at points along the dorsal fin.
I'm curious as to how it would be to carve up a whole one!
Gimme! Ugly or no this sounds good! In the Philippines we are used to seeing the whole fish (any fish)...I still prefer it that way When I was a kid I used to think it was that way all over the world, and it was quite a surprise when I found out it wasn't!
joey - I can so relate to folks who can appreciate the good, the bad, and definitely the ugly A lot of it has to do with how you regarded fish while growing up and boy what memories those were! From hooking a worm to gutting a fish, I feel more at ease when a fish is whole and fresh as can be. Frozen fish sticks? *GAG*
ooh yeah ankimo rules! that is a very creepy looking fish, even without the head... Mmm I just had some delicious and expensive lobster, which makes me wonder how a monkfish tail roll would taste?
Oh geez, how did I miss this post! Frogs??? Tell me, Ms. Ro, do you actually have miso in Italy or do you import it from home? After being cooked, it's texture does look similar to lobster tail...well...maybe only if you don't tell me it's monkfish! Either way, it does look delicious. You can make anything look delicious.
Cathy - knowing how you're not especially fond of fish, I give you credit for even taking a look at this post. 
Scary is right, but I bet those leeches that Demi Moore raves about in her "leech therapy" are much worse (I won't ever feature them here). BLOODSUCKERS ON MY BOD?!? gaaaaaaaaah!!
Foodhoe - keep rolling with the fab suggestions. I will definitely give it a try and POST about it!
Ok it looks delicious. I must admit I have found monk fish a bit scary, along with a few other water creatures, but it sounds good. Perhaps one day with this kind of encouragement in photos.
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