From menace to delicacy
By Flickr user JOE M500
Listeners learned about the new push for stingray cuisine from Sabri Ben-Achour’s piece for American Public Media’s Marketplace. Ben-Achour reports that restaurant owners in Virginia are adding stingrays to their menus to keep crabs and oysters plentiful. Apparently, stingrays find these two bay dwellers tasty and local businessmen are worried that their cash crop will dwindle.
The transition requires new thinking to keep the stingrays under control. Some restaurants are switching up their marketing to push the fish to their customers.
At the Sam Miller’s Restaurant in downtown Richmond, Mike Hutt is pushing fried stingray on diners.
MIKE HUTT: Try the taco. It’s Chesapeake Ray, it’s fried, and it’s made into a taco.
Hutt directs Virginia’s Marine Products Board, and he’s in charge of marketing “Chesapeake Ray.”
HUTT: We’re trying to develop it as a food source, to take it out of the bay, and have it on the menus.
They have Ray Fillets and Ray Strips — Spicy and Country style. The red meat is high in protein, low in fat.
Today’s Tip: Follow the predator.
Pay attention to whatever the waste is in your area and see if there’s a business segment springing up to deal with it. For instance, when cities started selling their recycling collections to private companies for disposal, the recycling industry boomed.
