What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?

Omaha World-Herald: In a recent editorial, we facetiously suggested that one solution to the problem of invasive Asian carp taking over American waterways, including the Missouri River and the entire Mississippi system, was to eat them. Now a well-known chef is promoting just that.

Louisiana chef Philippe Parola also wants the fish renamed — it’s not a carp at all, he said. It is not a bottom feeder, and its shape, its color and the way it grows are all uncarp-like, he said.

He wants to call it a silverfin. It takes some special handling, he said, to make it appealing on the plate. It has many bones, for instance. But he has ways of killing and cooking it to maximize its mild, white fleshy attractions.

Just because it has an unattractive name is no reason to discard it. Orange roughy was once just another slimehead until renamed.

The Asian carp — or most other types of carp, for that matter — haven’t become really popular on American tables. They are classified as trash fish unfit for consumption, though many people who regularly fish relish them.