Asian Carp in Asia
It is ironic that there is no market for Asian carp in the U.S., where they are invasive, when in Asia, where they are native and pose no threat, intense consumer demand for them has depleted their huge indigenous populations (Garvey). Furthermore, as of 2012, the silver and bighead carps are the second and seventh most farmed fishes in the world, respectively; in 2012, a combined total of over seven million tons of the two were produced (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN).
Among people raised in the United States, it is difficult to find anybody who has eaten Asian carp, or who knows it as anything but an invasive species. I did, however get to hold a brief, informal interview with an Emory student from Korea who had eaten bighead carp once. He had favorable things to say about it, though he seemed slightly hesitant when I asked whether he thought it would be adaptable to American dishes. He also said that carp are not as popular in Korea as they are in some other Asian countries. However, he did describe beliefs held by some in Korea that carp have healthful or even medicinal properties. The full text of the rather messy interview is shown below.
Interview
Me: Have you eaten bighead or silver carp before?
Dave: I have eaten bighead before, yes.
Me: How many times?
Dave: Just once, when I went to a fair… when I went to a port city called Gangwondo.
Me: How was it?
Dave: It was good. It was served as a form of steamed meat with some sort of spicy sauce on top, and, uh, it tasted pretty good, sorta more protein-ish tasting comparably to other fish. If I had to describe it in one word, the meats of the fish was "melting in my mouth." I meant to say "one sentence" instead of "one word."
Me: And is it considered to be healthy?
Dave: Yes, it is. In fact, I've heard from people of local areas that they are helpful in supplementing the proteins and is really good for a man's stamina. It's also, like, helpful for the inflammation. It's helpful for pregnant women in cleansing their blood, and it's also a good food for inflammation you get… it also digests really well comparably to other fish.
Me: Is that bighead carp specifically, or carp in general?
Dave: Sort of carps in general.
Me: So, how often have you had carp in general?
Dave: Not the same type of carp?
Me: Yeah, just carp in general.
Dave: Not that often. We eat more of fish soups, like pollacks or catfish, and for grilled fish we eat mackerel… most of the carps we eat come from Japan or some other southeastern Asian countries. China is really popular with the food, but in Korea it's not as popular as some other Asian countries. However, we do value carp as a decently valuable ingredient, not only as a food source, but also as a medicine.
Me: A medicine?
Dave: Yeah.
Me: What do you mean by that? The stuff you said before, or there's more?
Dave: Well, we also use these carps from time to time as an extract… sort of like a juice or an extract mixed with several other ingredients that are medicinal. Like cinnamon, jujubes, chinese licorice, in a form of extract for pregnant women. Yeah. Anything else?
Me: One last thing. Do you think, based on how it tasted to you, that bighead carp would work well in American fish dishes? Like, fried, or broiled?
Dave: I might say that grilling this fish may work, and in a style of American dish I'm not sure, but, I believe it would sort of be a new taste that some fish-lovers… fish-maniacs… likes to enjoy.
Me: So to you it tastes a lot different from more normal things like pollock?
Dave: Well, the taste was mostly dependent on the sauce, but the meat seemed softer than fishes like pollock. Is that it?
Me: Yeah, thanks. You'll appear as "Dave" in this interview.
Dave: Put me as "Kano."
Me: Kano?
Dave: K-A-N-O, my old rapper name.
Me: Okay, will do. Thanks.
This site was created by Joey Benevento in Emory University's Domain of One's Own Program as part of an English 212W class with Professor Marc Bousquet.
Among people raised in the United States, it is difficult to find anybody who has eaten Asian carp, or who knows it as anything but an invasive species. I did, however get to hold a brief, informal interview with an Emory student from Korea who had eaten bighead carp once. He had favorable things to say about it, though he seemed slightly hesitant when I asked whether he thought it would be adaptable to American dishes. He also said that carp are not as popular in Korea as they are in some other Asian countries. However, he did describe beliefs held by some in Korea that carp have healthful or even medicinal properties. The full text of the rather messy interview is shown below.
Interview
Me: Have you eaten bighead or silver carp before?
Dave: I have eaten bighead before, yes.
Me: How many times?
Dave: Just once, when I went to a fair… when I went to a port city called Gangwondo.
Me: How was it?
Dave: It was good. It was served as a form of steamed meat with some sort of spicy sauce on top, and, uh, it tasted pretty good, sorta more protein-ish tasting comparably to other fish. If I had to describe it in one word, the meats of the fish was "melting in my mouth." I meant to say "one sentence" instead of "one word."
Me: And is it considered to be healthy?
Dave: Yes, it is. In fact, I've heard from people of local areas that they are helpful in supplementing the proteins and is really good for a man's stamina. It's also, like, helpful for the inflammation. It's helpful for pregnant women in cleansing their blood, and it's also a good food for inflammation you get… it also digests really well comparably to other fish.
Me: Is that bighead carp specifically, or carp in general?
Dave: Sort of carps in general.
Me: So, how often have you had carp in general?
Dave: Not the same type of carp?
Me: Yeah, just carp in general.
Dave: Not that often. We eat more of fish soups, like pollacks or catfish, and for grilled fish we eat mackerel… most of the carps we eat come from Japan or some other southeastern Asian countries. China is really popular with the food, but in Korea it's not as popular as some other Asian countries. However, we do value carp as a decently valuable ingredient, not only as a food source, but also as a medicine.
Me: A medicine?
Dave: Yeah.
Me: What do you mean by that? The stuff you said before, or there's more?
Dave: Well, we also use these carps from time to time as an extract… sort of like a juice or an extract mixed with several other ingredients that are medicinal. Like cinnamon, jujubes, chinese licorice, in a form of extract for pregnant women. Yeah. Anything else?
Me: One last thing. Do you think, based on how it tasted to you, that bighead carp would work well in American fish dishes? Like, fried, or broiled?
Dave: I might say that grilling this fish may work, and in a style of American dish I'm not sure, but, I believe it would sort of be a new taste that some fish-lovers… fish-maniacs… likes to enjoy.
Me: So to you it tastes a lot different from more normal things like pollock?
Dave: Well, the taste was mostly dependent on the sauce, but the meat seemed softer than fishes like pollock. Is that it?
Me: Yeah, thanks. You'll appear as "Dave" in this interview.
Dave: Put me as "Kano."
Me: Kano?
Dave: K-A-N-O, my old rapper name.
Me: Okay, will do. Thanks.
This site was created by Joey Benevento in Emory University's Domain of One's Own Program as part of an English 212W class with Professor Marc Bousquet.