Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/891238
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 11.17 129 Stop fishing for reasons not to try this sustainable protein. By Jenny Kiefer / Photos by Jessica Ebelhar Holy Carp! FOOD & DRINK Carp on corn chowder from Harvest. "We do, at minimum, about 20,000 pounds a week," says Lula Luu, owner of Fin Gourmet in Pa- ducah. "Last year we put away a little over one million pounds." She's talking Asian carp, which you might know as Kentucky carp, Kentucky Blue or silver carp. It's an invasive fish species that she says can be found in almost every inland waterway in the U.S. Fin Gourmet produces deboned filets of Asian carp, typically caught in Kentucky Lake or Lake Barkley in the western part of the state, and sends them around the country: 300 pounds to Elon Musk's SpaceX company, to a chef at the White House who smoked it for President Obama, to restaurants in Lexington, Flor- ida, Nashville. In Louisville, Fin Gourmet has supplied Asian carp to Ward 426, the Oakroom in the Seelbach, Wiltshire on Market, Mayan Cafe and Harvest. "When it comes to fish sometimes, especially locally in Kentucky, it's kind of hard to convince me personally," says Bruce Ucan, chef-owner of Mayan Cafe on East Market Street. His restaurant offers two oversized, pan-fried Asian carp filets atop a mound of black rice and fried plantains, topped with a citrus achiote sauce — Ucan's take on the Yucatecan dish Tikin Xic. His food truck at Grave- ly Brewing Co. serves grilled Asian carp fish tacos, topped with a sweet and spicy pineapple-poblano salsa and a jalapeño aioli for added heat. "For the restaurant, it was a little challenging in the beginning," says Ucan, who orders about 100 pounds of Asian carp each month. "People, when they think about (this) fish, it's funny. But once they eat it, they're like, 'Man, this is awesome!'" e fish has a mild flavor and no overt fishy smell. It can be fried, grilled, smoked or served as ceviche or sashimi. As a "filter-feeder" at the top of the water, it doesn't eat other fish, meaning low traces of contamination or mercury. And you don't have to feel guilty eating it because it can't be over-fished. "One female — just one female — in a year can lay up to a million eggs," Luu says. "About a quarter of that is going to become adults. You can imagine the multiplication of this popula- tion." And these aren't small fish. An adult Asian carp can get up to 100 pounds. Originally bred to be farmed, the fish crept into wild waterways due to flooding in the Mississippi Delta. A fish that grows and reproduces as quickly as the Asian carp, with no natural predators, will push out