Maryland Chefs Try Cooking With Invasive Snakeheads

Snakehead scared everyone when they first showed up in American waters. Part of the fear was environmental: as the fish, originally from Southeast Asia, crept up the Atlantic coast, they decimated native species. They were at the top of the food chain; smallmouth bass could not compete with their razor-sharp teeth. The other part of the fear was visceral. Snakeheads look monstrous.

Now, though, the Baltimore Sun reports that a group of chefs and environmentalists in Maryland is trying to bring the snakeheads down a notch, by eating them. The brave snakehead cooks have said that firm, fast-cooking snakehead meat tastes like chicken. (This group joins an exciting bandwagon of cooks who are using new recipes to combat the pervasive problem of invasive species.)

This isn't the first time someone has tried the fish; way back in 2002, AlterNet reported the same taste proximity. And the Vietnamese have been eating snakehead—known as Ca Loc—forever.

That hasn't stopped McSweeney's from hilariously lampooning snakehead recipes, though: read carefully and prepare to laugh.

Here's the Baltimore Sun's video report on the culinary trend:

Comments

[Freedom Rush]

08:58 PM on 07/21/2011

Snake heads snake heads,
Roly poly snake heads,
Snake heads snake heads,
Eat them up yum

[Thomas HuttonPotts]

01:17 PM on 07/21/2011

Heck Yes! Put those fish into their place on the food chain... I've had Snakehead before and it is good! Awesome!

[illustratorblog]

09:51 AM on 07/21/2011

Snakehead as top of a food chain? Good!

[prakash chand pathak]

06:54 AM on 07/21/2011

I see real crappy songs and short stories getting acclaim here, please tell me what you really think. The truth helps not hurts.
http://brareview.jimdo.com/

[mlaiuppa]

11:58 PM on 07/20/2011

A fish is a fish. If it isn't toxic and doesn't taste awful, go for it.

Do like shark and rename it on the menu if it doesn't sell. (Shark used to be called whitefish.)

If we can overfish tuna and other fish to extinction, the maybe we can control the invasive species by eating them to extinction or at least control.

[larmar]

07:53 AM on 07/21/2011

If my memory is correct, I believe McDonald's used to advertise whitefish in their fish sandwiches.

[Thomas HuttonPotts]

01:18 PM on 07/21/2011

Those were bleached floor scrapings...

[Mr Hoodoo]

11:18 PM on 07/20/2011

Gadzooks! Seeing the photo before I read the headline I thought for sure that was a pic of AnnCoulter.

But no, just a Snakehead fish. Still, wouldn't want to eat either. Yeeeeargh!

[Thomas HuttonPotts]

01:19 PM on 07/21/2011

Not Ann Coulter... That's Diane Sawyer you're thinking of...

[Mr Hoodoo]

02:38 PM on 07/21/2011

Hmm...

Check with your optometrist for a checkup STAT.

[KingKrub]

08:13 PM on 07/23/2011

Diane Sawyer? Like in that song from Rush?

[FrankLuchan]

08:33 PM on 07/20/2011

I betcha they would make excellent Fish Tacos.

Along with a case of ice cold Pacificos and you've got yourself some good eatin'.

[FrankLuchan]

08:31 PM on 07/20/2011

That picture is repulsive.

By the way, I think they got the caption wrong, isn't that a picture of Harry Reid?

[kareemachan]

12:10 PM on 07/21/2011

Oh look, everybody, it's another tro//ette trying to be funny here on HP! It's too bad they never actually *are*, tho.

[FrankLuchan]

06:48 PM on 07/21/2011

Oh come on.

It is a little funny.

It never ceases to amaze me how most liberals have ZERO sense of humor.

[Al Schrader]

08:11 PM on 07/20/2011

Everthing that comes from the sea is edible, except the puffer and sea snake heads...Al-

[iguanamom3]

08:10 PM on 07/20/2011

That's probably why I don't like chicken. It tastes like everything else.

[Brer Orabbit]

08:02 PM on 07/20/2011

McSweeney's snakehead recipes lack one essential ingredient: Within the beltway snake oil.

[antfern]

07:49 PM on 07/20/2011

Its only in the U.S. that a fish is invasive but to look at the other end this could be an opportunity. Like what this article is saying the fish is delicious and its because it is predator fish, it only eats other fishes meaning the meat is really rich in protien. It is ugly but theres a market for the fish if not we can turn them to dog food or other use. Some other invasive species can be turn into something like the Pythons that invades Florida, you can turn them to belts or shoes and the meat, animal feed or Spam. The key here is population, if theres a lot of them, they are opportunity. How about fly maggots? I welcome flys to my home but I have the control. I turn the maggots to fish food and the fish grow faster with maggot feed.

[SteveDenver]

07:28 PM on 07/20/2011

If most people had to "meet their meat" they wouldn't eat it. Factory cows are ravaged and terrified looking, turkeys have always been ugly, factory chickens are lopsidedly bigbreasted and ragged, factory shrimp is raised in an environment that makes a broken toilet in a cheap bar look clean.

[Daisytoo]

08:09 PM on 07/20/2011

Whow!

[KingKrub]

08:14 PM on 07/23/2011

Truth.

[thepetermedic]

07:20 PM on 07/20/2011

ok huff why are you not putting my comment about BP on here they payin you off you know as well as the rest of the usa they have destroyed the gulf and i wouldnt eat anyhing that came from our waters we all know the oil is out there somewhere

[topgearrt]

07:12 PM on 07/20/2011

I was watching anthony bourdain the other night and he was where they come from and anthony said they tasted great...we have that carp problem too,lets eat those as well.