Cuisine ala invasion: would you eat this... fish

[depakid]

A bighead carp, a species of the Asian carp, swims in an exhibit that highlights plants and animals that eat or compete with Great Lakes native species, at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium.
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Invasive species are not, by any means, a new problem on American soil. From zebra mussels to boa constrictors, they've been pushing out indigenous animals for centuries. Louisiana chef Philippe Parola, however, has an unusual strategy to get rid of them: putting them in our stomachs. (His oh-so-subtle eating philosophy: "You’ve got to have balls.")

In 1998, the flamboyant Parola was involved in the notorious (and unsuccessful) attempt to make the nutria, a large aquatic rodent pest, into a nationally popular meat. (It probably didn't help that the animal looks like that giant rat from your childhood nightmares.) Now he’s turned his attention to another invasive species, the Asian carp. The large fish, which can reach up to 30 pounds, has muscled out indigenous fish in American waterways, including the Mississippi, and has the dangerous habit of jumping out of the water near moving boats (to see them in terrifying YouTube action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS7zkTnQVaM">click here). Now, working with the state of Louisiana, Parola is hoping to curb its numbers by marketing the fish as a menu item. As part of his outreach, Parola will be promoting the fish to the 1,500 members of the annual National Grocer’s Association convention in Las Vegas.

Salon spoke to the energetic Parola over the phone about America’s conservative eating habits, his name-change marketing campaign, and why it’s so hard to get people to eat a giant rat.

How did you get involved in this effort to turn Asian carp into a menu item?

I was riding on my boat, going fishing, when these two fish literally jumped into my boat and landed on my feet. I’m a chef and I love exploring new avenues for new food, so when I saw them I decided to bleed them, bring them to my restaurant and fillet them. I found it was a delicious white meat. Then I called the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and let them know that this fish needs to have a marketing campaign.

Why haven’t people been eating this fish the whole time?

It was classified as a trash fish -- destroying nets, killing people , wiping out the native fish species by eating their food source. But there were two reasons we weren’t eating them: If you don’t bleed the fish, the meat is grayish-looking without much flavor, and there’s a lot of bones in this fish. Those were two things that nobody could overcome. I overcame them by bleeding the fish and steaming the meat so I could remove the bone.

Why are you so passionate about getting people to eat Asian carp?

I believe that if you kill, you eat it. The No. 1 goal is to resolve this ecological problem. The second goal is to create jobs. The third thing is for consumers, who have the most to gain. This fish is extremely healthy. It’s rich in omega 3 and there is no mercury because the silverfin is a filter feeder.

More: http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/01/21/philippe_parola_asian_carp/index.html

[madokie]

1. Carp is eaten in the rest of the world

We'd eat them when we caught one when I was a kid. Mom would sometimes pressure cook them then can them and over the winter months we'd have carp patties not unlike the salmon patties we eat today.

Go to a gigging and after the gigging meet is over and everyone comes back to the launch site the cookers would come out and cook those babies up. Actually fried carp is a pretty tasty fish its the bones that'll get you. but when you're poor you learn how to eat them off the bones.

The carp we'd eat were different than these though.

[malakai2]

2. It's worth trying

I'd like to, provided it's been properly prepared. These are a food fish in Asia. I am curious about the omega 3 claim, as well as the mercury claim...if they are indeed actually low in mercury content and not accumulating some unforeseen toxins from eating diatoms or cyanobacteria, it might be a good way to take a bite out of their numbers in the Mississippi basin.

[amborin]

3. too darn many invasives all over the place!