ADUCAH, Ky. — This hot dog jumps from the water into the bun.
While top chefs in Kentucky are starting to plate up Asian carp for gourmet diners, Asian carp hot dogs might be one of the first products to land the invasive fish inside supermarket carts. From the test kitchens of Two Rivers Fisheries in Paducah, chef Shawn Ward grilled up original, "teriyaki" and "jalapeno and cheese" flavor "fish hot dogs" at his upscale Ward 426 bistro.
"It tastes like a grilled hot dog," Ward said amid a mouthful of teriyaki carp dog slathered in slaw and shoestring french fries. "It’s not as strong. It’s good."
Since establishing her Paducah processing plant three years ago, Two Rivers Fisheries owner Angie Yu has grown the operation to 1.2 million pounds of Asian carp processed so far this year. That’s up from one million pounds in 2015 of 50-pound fish headed, gutted and shipped whole to markets in Eastern Europe and China.
While Two Rivers’ volume is high, Yu's profits remain low on her shipments of frozen fish carcasses overseas. That's why she's been shipping frozen hot dogs to chefs and publications like the Courier-Journal to test market appeal. Next, Yu plans to cook up carp-filled pot stickers.
"We need to open another market," Yu said.
An American classic, hot dogs are a growing product category seized by small, local food processors angling to break into mainstream markets. Last summer, a hemp-filled hot dog debuted at the Kentucky State Fair. That product sourced local beef and hemp direct from rural Kentucky farms to fair vendors who traditionally sourced foodstuffs from large distributors like Sysco.
While that hemp-filled hot dog gains traction in the marketplace, the carp dogs remain for now in Yu's test kitchen freezer.
For now, the ranks of independent fishermen in Paducah remain so thin, Yu has stopped taking orders from overseas for 2016.
"We don't have enough fishermen," Yu said. "I can't get enough fish."
