from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Carp - Carpe
Photograph
courtesy of Thomas Kohler
www.flickr.com/photos/mecklenburg/4841354483/
Carpe, Carpe Commune - Carp, Common Carp.
Near to rivers and streams, nearly every restaurant in France will have carp on the menu. Carp is popular and inexpensive, but not always on the menu in big city fish restaurants where the customers have been trained to expect more expensive fish on their menus.
Not only the French diners love carp, but carp are also among the most popular fish for French anglers who are happy when they catch a 12-kilo (26 L.B.) carp even though they know that rarer 20 kilos (44 lb) and 25 kilos (55 lb) specimens are out there.
17 kilo (38 lb) carp ready to be
returned to the lake.
Photograph courtesy of Tim Creque
www.flickr.com/photos/timjc513/3814857918/
The carp on restaurant menus are usually 3-4 kilos (6 - 9 lb) fish that come to the table from fish farms. Fish farms with carp are found all over France. The most well-known is in the Alsace in the Grand Est, in the Dombes in the region of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and those grown in the many lakes of the Limousin area of Nouvelle Aquitaine.
Carp
Photograph courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library
Carpe on French menus:
Friture de Filets de Carpe, Sans Peau et Sans Arêtes aux 4 Sauces, Pommes Frites, Salade – Fried filets of carp with the skin and bones removed, served with four sauces, French fries and a salad. The southern part of the Alsace in the region of the Grand Est and is famous for its traditional carp dishes, and fried carp will be on many menus. This menu listing includes French fries; however usually, you will usually have to order the French fries separately. N.B. Carp is a bony fish, and you are well-advised to order it fileted.
The menu listing above is clearly Alsatian and fried carp is the culinary specialty of Sundgau, a small southern region of the Alsace. This particular region has some 40 restaurants that specialize in traditional carp dishes. The tourist information office offers a map with a carp restaurant route. You may also join the Alsace Wine route des vins that runs close by, and in the restaurants, combine the wine with the fish.
The Tourist Information of Office of Sundgau has an English-language website.
https://www.sundgau-sud-alsace.fr/en/
Salade de Carpe Fumée Maison – A salad served with home-made smoked carp. Smoked carp is popular and is available in supermarkets all over France.
Filet de Carpe Sauce à l'Oseille - A filet of carp served with a sorrel sauce. Sorrel has a light lemony flavor, making it a popular herb to use in fish dishes.
A baked carp filet with a herb crust
served on glazed beetroot with cabbage and
a chive foam.
Photograph
courtesy of Golf Resort Achental Team
www.flickr.com/photos/chiemseehotel/15545623117/
Boudin
de Carpe aux Ėcrevisses et
Crème au Lard
Fumé – Carp sausages,
made with minced carp, served with a creamy shrimp
sauce and smoked
bacon.
Freshly smoked carp ready for the lunch-time customers.
Photograph
courtesy of Torrenegra
www.flickr.com/photos/alextorrenegra/7788492038/
Filet de Carpe “des Dombes “ Vapeur, Sauce Crustacés – A steamed filet of carp from the Dombes served with a shellfish sauce.
The Dombes, which combine fish farming as well as agriculture, also has a bird sanctuary. There is a French-language website, and using Bing, or Google translate apps make the website easily understood.
Salade de Carpe Fume, Lentilles du Berry, Fromage Frais de Chèvre, Basilic - A salad of smoked carp served with the famous green lentils from Berry along with fresh goat’s cheese flavored with basil. This dish is from the old province of Berry, now the departments of Cher and Indre, in the region of the Centre-Val de Loire.
In Berry, the chefs take full advantage of the freshwater fish from the National Park of Brenne. The park has over 1,000 freshwater ponds and freeing-running streams, lakes, and freshwater fish farms. Fresh carp, pike, freshwater eels, zander (pike-perch), freshwater perch, and frogs (for frog’s legs) come from here.
The Parc Naturel Régional de la Brenne has a France-Voyage introduction to the park in English:
https://www.france-voyage.com/tourism/brenne-regional-nature-park-1566.htm
The official website is only in French; however, the Google or Microsoft translation apps the site is easily understood:
www.parc-naturel-brenne.fr/fr/
Fried
carp, mango and broccolini.
www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/50650389408/
Goujonnettes de Carpe Frites à
l’Huile de Pépins de Raisin, sur Lit de Verdure – Tiny carp and small pieces of
carp fried in oil made from grape pits/pips served on a bed of vegetables.
Goujonnettes can be any small fish, and in France, any small sea fish, or
freshwater fish, when used for a fish soup, or served as part of a petite friture,
a fry up of small fish, maybe called a goujon. Here, at least, you know they
are serving small carp.
Fried Carp
Photograph
courtesy of Chris RubberDragon
www.flickr.com/photos/rubberdragon/6568839579/
Carpe à la Juive - Carp in the Jewish
Manner. This dish is carp filets lightly fried with onions and herbs and served
in the restaurants of the Alsace as a cold entrée. The dish was created by
Alsatian Jews for the Sabbath when no cooking was permitted. Though the large
Jewish population of the Alsace ended with WWII, this recipe is still enjoyed
and will be on many Alsatian restaurant menus. Carp is also, traditionally, the
main component of the Jewish dish called Gefilte Fish.
Carpe
à la Juive
Photograph courtesy of Tout le Vins
Taramasalata – Taramasalata is one of the most well-known dishes in traditional Greek mezes and a popular entrée (the French first course) in many French seafood restaurants. Taramasalata should be a light beige to a light creamy pink mixture of salted and cured carp roe, olive oil, garlic, onions, lemon juice, and breadcrumbs. (Initially, gray mullet roe was used, but that was changed to carp roe when gray mullet roe became too expensive). When you see bright pink versions of Taramasalata, then you know that food coloring has been added to the roe of a fish that is almost certainly neither a gray mullet roe nor carp roe.
In a Greek restaurant, in France,
I learned that formerly Taramasalata was only served during the Christian
holiday of Lent when meat was not eaten. Traditions, however, do change, and
tourists to Greece and diners in Greek restaurants in France look for
Taramasalata. Now Taramasalata is available all year round inside and outside
Greece.
Farming Carp
Fish farming, including carp, began in China in 2,500 BCE, and Egypt farmed tilapia from 1,500 BCE. Nevertheless, the 5th century BCE was probably when the Romans started commercially farming fish though wealthy Romans had their own seawater and freshwater fish ponds long before. When the Romans occupied France in 121 BCE, along with the trees, fruits, vines for grapes, public baths, and aqueducts, they brought fish farms. Following the Frankish victory in the 5th century CE, a large part of France came under the rule of the Merovingians, the first kings of France. However, there is no extant reference to fish farming under the Merovingian’s.
A carp jumping for its dinner
Photograph courtesy of Philippe Garcelon
For France and elsewhere, the first modern commercially productive fish farms only became important from the mid-twentieth century. The carp that the Romans brought to France are the ancestors of the carp now in French rivers and streams. These wild carp are now considered a pest in many rivers as they damage the ecosystem for other fish.
Koi (or Japanese) carp
Koi (or Japanese) carp are the extremely expensive ornamental
carp so highly valued in Japan and China. These ornamental carp are the
original species behind the common carp on the menu listings above. The Koi
carp were developed from the Amur or Amour carp that originated in the Amour
river system in Asia. For over 2,000 years, they have been bred for their
unique colors and markings.
Koi Carp
Colored varieties of the Amur
carp.
Photograph courtesy of Frédéric BISSON
www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/51412907569/
Common carp are members of a large family with other family members on the menu in other parts of Europe and Asia. One member of the carp family is on offer in all pet shops; that is the goldfish, the smallest member of the carp family.
The smallest member of the carp family.
Photograph
courtesy of Dean McCoy.
www.flickr.com/photos/deanmccoyphotos/5493432536/
Common carp - Carpe in the languages of France’s neighbors:
(Catalan - carpa), (Dutch – karr). (German – karpfe, karpen, weissfische, wildkarpfen). (Italian- carpa), (Spanish - carpa), (Latin - cyprinus carpio carpio).
Amur or Amour Carp - Latin - cyprinus rubrofuscus.
Crucian carp - Carassin Commun in the languages of France’s neighbors:
(Dutch - kroeskarper), (German - karausche), (Italian - carassio), (Spanish - carpin), (Latin - carassius carassius).
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