Species sheet · The Edible River
Grass carp
The weed-bed mower from China.
- Steamed whole with ginger and spring onion
- Sour pickled-cabbage fish soup (suan cai yu), Sichuan style
- Fillets fried in batter
- In French
- Amour blanc
- Scientific name
- Ctenopharyngodon idella
- Status
- Invasive species
- In the water
- A fish of the great rivers of China and the Amur, released worldwide to clear weed-choked canals. It grazes on water plants in calm, warm water.
- Season & buying
- Farmed all year in Asia; in Europe it is mostly caught from late spring to autumn, when the water warms.
- Common length
- ~70 cm
- How to identify it
- Long, cylindrical body, olive grey with golden glints
Large dark-edged scales forming a net pattern
Broad head and a mouth without barbels
On the plate
White, firm, mild flesh, slightly sweet when it comes from clean water.
Avoid: Keeping it alive in muddy water before cooking: that is where it picks up an earthy taste; leave it a few days in clean water.
Its French name, amour blanc, has nothing to do with love: the Amur is the river on the Chinese-Russian border where it lives wild.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
