Carp in a Wok

For years now I've been wondering why America is just ignoring 2,000 years of Chinese recipes with carp.  I've found dozens of innovative recipes from carp taco to carp hot dogs, but nothing beats a traditional whole fish recipe.  In fact, why try to debone carp when we all know that the y-bones are infamously hard to get around?

Outside of sushi, most fish are served with bones in both Japan and China.  It's customary to simply eat around the bones because it helps you learn chopsticks.  Okay maybe that's the problem with America.  We just don't know how to use chopsticks.

That's changing a lot these days due to the influx of sushi and the influx of culinary shows.  If you ask me, we should return to whole fish dinners in America.  It wasn't long ago when fisherman and beach goers would take a whole fish and cook it over a camp fire.  And they pick the bones to eat the freshest fish.

Sure, it's a stretch to incorporate this with carp in America because we rarely eat things like salmon or cod whole anymore.  If we could simply offer more fish whole in the grocery stores, I'm sure more people would venture into cooking it whole

Online, I was able to finally find some traditional carp recipes.  Guess what?  You don't have to worry about bones because everybody will expect them to have it in this method.

Just take the cleaned carp and fry in a wok.  You see, the wok was designed for this.   You don't need a lot of oil because unlike your deep fried fish sticks, this is more about slowly pan frying the fish to get the inside done with a crispy skin on the outside.  

Chinese have perfect this style cooking for over 2,000 years and we are basically trying to reinvent the wheel in America.  Eat carp yes, but eat it whole.  That's the way it was intended to be eaten.  We lack two categories for fish in America.  The processed fish stick stuff and bone fish.   Bone fish meaning it's sold fresh whole.

The funny part is that the constant joking about carp being garbage fish has made me shake my head about just how far removed rural America is to the world.  Carp, when cooked in a wok just comes out delicious.  And carp in a wok, although sounds difficult, is actually the easiest way to cook fish.

The thing about this is that you can do with with the most expensive fish like red snapper and even wild salmon, but you can also do it with cheap fish like tilapia, bass, and even carp.

Seafood Watch Lists Carp As Food Fish

Online, there has been infinite jokes and questions about Asian Carp.  The most common question is carp being edible?  The reality is that most Americans lack fish in their diets to justify avoiding carp as a choice.  However,  for the longest time Monterey Bay Aquarium didn't have carp listed as a food fish.  It wasn't until I asked them directly and also wrote to them the they replied back that they would indeed add carp and that the biologists were fact finding on information regarding nutrition and ratings for the carp as a food fish.

Today it's officially listed as a food fish on Seafood Watch.  America's most respected listing of seafood ratings in the world and also a great way to join the sustainable seafood movement.  In fact, restaurants are encouraged to get on board to be certified by Seafood Watch to become sustainable.

Seafood Watch recommends "Certified Natureland" farmed carp.  This means that they went to the farm and tested the waters, the atmosphere and nutrition of the carp.  Natureland must have passed all their requirements to be a supplier of carp.

Now for those in rural America who question the validity of carp as food, well it's very difficult to rebuke Monterey Bay Aquarium.  They are truly the benchmark in seafood ratings and sustainable fish.  

What does this mean for the infamous invasive Asian Carp?  Well it's simple, for a long as the Lacey Act exists, farmed carp will be the only best option in California.  That's because to this day, we still don't have access to the wild Asian Carp from the Mississippi River because the Lacey Act won't allow for shipment of live Asian Carp.

Live carp is still very common in ethnic grocers across California but almost all of them are farmed.  It's a weird reality that consumed fish that is considered invasive species in America has to be farmed in America.  Does this make sense?  We have billions of carp in our water ways and none of them make it to the grocers.  Instead markets are forced to use farmed carp because that's the only way to get them in tanks in California?

It doesn't matter.  In my eyes, farmers are farmers and they deserve to be a part of the process when it comes to fish.  I'm just glad that the prestigious Monterey Bay Aquarium finally sees carp as one of the most eaten fishes in the world.

As the Great Lakes suffer to fend off Asian Carp, here we are in California with access only to the farmed carp.   Farming fish is one way to remain sustainable, but not when we have plenty of invasive fish to go around?

Reducing Invasive Fish

I've thought about Asian Carp for some time.  I know that the DNR, the White House have spent millions of dollars preventing this invasive fish from entering the Great Lakes.  However, there is a very important element to this story that is missing.  The fact that Asian Carp is a food fish and Americans don't want to accept it as a viable food source.

Today, I just wanted to talk a little bit about changing the dynamics of the entire population in America.  For years, both parties in government have been arguing about the costs associated with healthcare for the poor and the sick.  It's as if they don't want to pay for it with our tax money, yet the food companies continue to rack in profits feeding our young worse and worse products with additives and processed chemicals.  In other words, obesity is an epidemic in this nation and nobody seems to have a nationwide solution to stop it.

What if Asian Carp could be the push we needed to emphasize Omega-3 back into our children's diets?

Asian Carp poses a huge threat to the Great Lakes, but it's also very healthy.  You see, carp is a food fish.  Asian Carp is regularly eaten in China and Eastern Europe.  If this fish has been around for 2,000 years in the culinary world, there's no debate about the nutrition nor the recipes.  It's just a fact that people eat this fish.

In America, the problem is perception.  People don't like carp because they compare it to the common carp which are bottom feeders and seen as garbage fish.  However, even garbage fish are eaten daily in America.  If you look at lobsters, catfish, and even flounder, all of them eat dead things in the ground.  We may not agree to see it that way, but I'm sure the biologists don't distinguish between which is a good or bad bottom feeder, regardless of cuisine, taste, nor traditions.

For me, perhaps the biggest market is sushi.  I don't understand why in America we are so limited to ocean fish for sushi.  In Japan, it's obvious that all fish are fair game for consumption.  Sushi chefs across Japan have found creative and innovative ways to consume fresh water fish as sushi.  Perhaps the most famous is Kohada which was showcased on "Jiro Dreams of Sushi".  The gizzard shad from the lakes are carefully prepared in vinegar to be served as nigiri based on Edo-mae sushi.   It's the traditional Tokyo style sushi which shows off the pristine silver colors of the shad.

However, carp is no stranger to sushi.  Chinese have eaten fresh water sashimi for centuries.  It lost its luster after the fall of the Tang Dynasty but it continued to thrive in Japan.  The Emperor loved sushi so much that it became a national dish.  Carp was the first derivative of sashimi.  In the mountain regions of Japan, sushi chefs grab carp and cut it down alive into slices and serve it directly in its own carcass.  It may sound cruel but Japanese are notorious for freshness and having the fish served in its own body is seen as so fresh that the fish may even move.

Now nobody expects Americans to accept traditions of sushi.  We are a nation that implements moral rights to fish.  So perhaps the only thing we can do is push Asian Carp to be as delicious and cherished as our king salmon which can easily use the same rivers.

After reviewing and reading forum after forum on Asian Carp, I'm finding that the name isn't really the biggest hurdle for carp.  It's the bones.  Americans, or at least rural Americans find that the fish is too bony to make it viable as a food fish.

I don't know about you, but isn't that why we have sushi?  The sushi masters are so well prepared to get around bones that they see fish like this as a challenge.  They'll slice and clean the fish with their expensive sharp knives showcasing their talents in front of their fans and patrons.  In fact, most sushi eaters prefer to try the most exotic fishes because the idea of sushi isn't just freshness but also trying a variety of species.

The biggest hurdle for carp isn't just promoting it to Americans, it's also the laws.  Most carp are usually sold alive in other parts of the world.  Unlike other fishes, carp tends to degrade quickly after death.  So for this reason, chefs have discovered ways to just keep them alive in tanks and prepare them for consumption as customers order them.

The Lacey Act implemented by Congress prevents any carp to be transported alive.  This means that restaurants and even fish markets can't purchase Asian Carp alive.  Chinese, especially the Cantonese cuisine is customary to store fish alive before preparing.  You will see live crab, lobster, and even bass alive in tanks at Chinese restaurants.  It's their tradition.

In sushi restaurants, almost all fish are processed and frozen.  That's because laws in America have forced a term "sushi grade" which almost always forces all restaurants to serve fish frozen to kill off parasites.  And although chefs will say that their fish are fresh, it's almost certain that all their fish have been frozen overnight or flash frozen to kill off parasites by law.

That may be an issue for the Asian Carp.  Although the fish is normally transported killed.  It almost always is driven for hours before they are frozen and processed at the factories.  That's because none of the Asian Carp are caught with sushi in mind.

Removing the Lacey Act will allow for more sales of carp.  It will not only open the flood gates of the Chinese restaurant market, it'll open new innovative ways for fisherman to transport fish alive to processors who can then prep the fish for sushi consumption.  Probably flash frozen -40 below zero and then shipped to chefs across America.  Essentially opening another source of fish similar to that of Tsukiji Fish Market which happens to be 8,000 miles away.

In rural American forums, I'm learning that ridicule for Asian Carp exists everywhere.  In fact, most probably aren't sushi eaters.  They see raw fish as the usual fears of parasites.  However, us sushi lovers already know that the sushi chefs know what they are doing and almost always know more about fish than even the fisherman.

So the fear of Asian Carp as a potential parasite hazard could be removed by experts that supply fish in the industry.  They are just good at what they do.  And of course fresh water fish as sushi is a new concept in America but it has existed in China and Japan for over 2,000 years.  It's just proven.

Perhaps the biggest example of where fears can be reduced is "Izumidai" or tilapia sashimi.  I eat this regularly and chances are that many Americans have eaten this fish.  That's because it's commonly served in replacement to "tai" or snapper.  The white flesh is ideal sashimi and the texture between tai snapper and tilapia is very similar.  Recently high end restaurants have been caught selling tilapia fillet as red snapper in America.  So the potential is there.

Eating Izumidai means that fresh water fish are very viable sources for sushi.  It has been and always will be.

To reduce invasive fish, it's possible that sushi chefs should come to the rescue.  Eating Asian Carp is the only way that we can move ahead with the fish.  All other options are just simply too harmful to the environment and the economy.   Sushi is an expansion, a way to educate and increase Omega-3 back into the American population, and of course a cleaner way to remove carp.