Asian carp: If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em

If buffalo meat isn't your cup of tea, maybe you'll like Asian carp. A Wisconsin chef who hosts twice-a-year wild game dinners, is planning an "invasivore" dinner menu, reports Karen Herzog for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Chef Jimmy Wade has created Carp Cakes, Smoked Carp Steak and Carp Napoleon, from the invasive Asian carp caught in the Illinois River. (Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

"If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em," is only one strategy for controlling the fish that threaten to breach the Great Lakes. "It's one tactic in the fight — one tool in the tool chest. Slowing down the advance is important, but it's not the solution," said Josh Mogerman, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. More helpful would be expanding the export market to China and boosting commercial fishing.

Wade says they can be delicious, but only 20 to 25 percent of each fish is edible meat. Another invasive species that Chapman compared the Asian carp to is the nutria, "a large South American rodent resembling a beaver." Unfortunately, "Nutria tastes awful," said Milwaukee chef David Swanson. "It's like leather cowhide. We tried to braise it, but it still tasted like gamy squirrel." (Read more)