Louisville Magazine

NOV 2017

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 11.17 131 Tikin Xic (left): Asian carp, black rice, fried plantains and achiote sauce from Mayan Cafe. Carp Niçoise from Harvest. other native species. ey're a nuisance to humans as well. If a boat grazes the water where the fish are feeding, a sort of static electricity causes them to jump. "A fish is flying through the air and you're having to be the wall that it collides into," Luu says. "It's going to be painful." Luu says Fin Gourmet started by acci- dent. In 2010, Luu was working in New Orleans as a researcher at LSU's medical school and co-founded a nonprofit to help folks in the community access healthcare. en came the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Long story short, a lot of the people we were working with could no longer have a living because they couldn't go out into the Gulf to do shrimping or fishing," she says. "We thought, naively: ey have boats and nets. How difficult can it be to fish inland?" In just a year, Luu put 100,000 miles on her Camry driving across the Delta region, researching Asian carp. ey lab-tested the fish to determine whether it was healthy or safe to eat. "e (only) problem that we saw was that it's too bony," she says. "e mainstream American palate does not know how to eat fish with bones in it." Eventually she and her business partner, John Crilly, con- nected with commercial fisherman Ronny Hopkins in Ledbetter near Paducah. "It's a fish that's putting Kentucky on the map," Luu says. Fin Gourmet keeps extensively main- tained fish logs, a tracking system uncom- mon for many wild-caught fish. "Ninety percent of seafood that we eat, we have no idea where it's from or who made it," Luu says. "If a customer at Mayan Cafe asked, 'When was this fish caught?' I can bring out the fish log and tell them exactly who caught it, where it was caught, what time it was brought in, down to the person who packaged it." Harvest chef Patrick Roney had challenges pitching the fish. "A lot of customers kind of shun it when they first hear it," he says. "Once they've tried it, we've got people coming back specif- ically for the carp." Harvest has served it several ways: ceviche-style, fried, grilled to top a Niçoise salad, mixed into the creamy inside of a pickled deviled egg. Harvest's big menu item features a thick filet crusted in blue corn meal, with smooth corn chowder as a sauce. Un- derneath, it's paired with thick, roasted potatoes and pork belly. "I wouldn't put it on the menu if it didn't taste really good," Roney says.

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