Venomous, invasive lionfish tastes great and is only served at one NYC restaurant

By Jesse Serwer New York Daily News

A finished fried whole Lionfish and a fillet version is displayed at the Spur Tree at Norman’s Cay restaurant in the Lower East Side.

They’re bold, beautiful and out of control — and absolutely delicious.

Lionfish, an invasive species native to the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, have been wreaking havoc on the Caribbean and the West Atlantic, decimating native fish populations from Cartagena to North Carolina with their voracious appetite. And one local eatery, Manhattan’s Spur Tree at Norman’s Cay, is leading the charge to turn the venomous fish into a culinary staple.

The stunningly colorful lionfish, an invasive species that was taken from a coral reef in the Bahamas, has become a culinary specialty.

The Lower East Side lounge, which specializes in Jamaican and Caribbean cuisine, is currently the only restaurant in New York City that regularly stocks lionfish, and one of only two in the Northeast U.S.

But that could soon change, thanks to co-owner Ryan Chadwick, who recently launched a wholesale distribution website with the goal of keeping the unwanted predator’s rapidly ballooning numbers in check, and the fish inside more kitchens.

“The phone rings maybe 15 times a week with people saying, ‘Hey, do you have lionfish? We’re not going to come in until you have it,’” Chadwick says. “We have big restaurants calling us to say, ‘Hey, where did you guys get it, can we get 10 or 20 pounds to try it out?’”

Spur Tree co-owners Sean John and Ryan Chadwick have been turning lionfish into a delicious meal in the Northeast.

Until recently, the stunning, striped fish was most familiar in this part of the world as an exotic aquarium pet, seen in colorful cameos in comedy flicks “The Naked Gun” and “Deuce Bigalow.”

Sometime around the late 1980s or early 1990s, a population of pet lionfish was introduced to the Atlantic, around South Florida. The invaders, which can reproduce every five to six days and have no known predators outside of their natural habitat, went mostly undetected until about a decade ago, when their exploding numbers were linked to alarming depletions of parrotfish and other indigenous species critical to coral reefs.

“It eats 10 times its body weight every day,” Chadwick says of the lionfish, which have grown to as big as 2 1/2 pounds in the Caribbean, nearly twice their normal size. “This thing is like the vacuum cleaner of the sea. It’s just eating everything around it. They’ve actually started cannibalizing themselves, which is pretty crazy.”

Lionfish enthusiasts say that it’s “one of the best-tasting fish on the reef.”
Lionfish are rarely caught by hook and line — capturing them generally requires a spear, scuba gear, and a little bit of courage. Attempts were made to teach sharks and other native species to develop an appetite for the spiny fish, but conservationists soon realized that the best way to beat them was for us to eat them.

“People realized they do taste good,” says Port St. Lucie, Fla.-based diver Andy Lowe, inventor of the Foldspear, a folding spear especially equipped for lionfish hunting, and the creator of lionfish information website, Lionfish.co. “Besides being beautiful and invasive, they are one of the best-tasting fish on the reef. I’ve never had anybody tell me they don’t like it.”

As more diners gravitate towards sustainable, eco-friendly food options, invasive species are gaining cache. Chefs across the Caribbean and Central America, and a handful in Florida, the Carolinas and the Gulf Coast, have added lionfish to their menus, using the meat for everything from tacos to sushi and ceviche.

At Spur Tree at Norman’s Cay, Jamaican-born chef and co-owner Sean John fries the whole fish — minus those venomous scales, of course — and serves it escoveitch style, with a spicy dressing of pickled hot peppers and onions.

It’s easy to remove the poisonous fins of the Lionfish, and can be done with standard kitchen scissors.

“Escoveitched fish is very popular in Jamaica, and is eaten from morning until night, all over the island,” John says. “Nearly any fish that swims in our waters, including lionfish, can be cooked this way. The fish is cooked and pickled in the tasty sauce of vinegar and spices — our spices are pimento, carrot, bell peppers, scotch bonnet peppers onions and thyme.”

John — who joined forces with Chadwick in 2014 after the two previously operated separate restaurants, Spur Tree and Norman’s Cay, next door from each other — also uses lionfish meat in a fish tea, a fiery Jamaican soup. He experiments with the fish in daily specials, such as a pan-seared fillet served over a polenta-like cornmeal mixture with a rich red reduction of sorrel and beets, recently offered for Valentine’s Day.

“It’s a sweet, white flaky fish with a taste similar to a parrotfish or a snapper,” John says. “It’s super healthy, very delicate and tender, and it’s easy to cook it just about any way you can think of.”

In spite of their abundance, obtaining lionfish has proven prohibitive for restaurants beyond their range, which reaches up to the Carolinas. Seafood distributors rarely carry it, leaving Chadwick and John to source directly from divers in Florida and the Caribbean — when they’re not fishing it, and flying it back themselves.

The Spur Tree co-owners say that they’ve seen increased demand for lionfish, and chefs in the South have been adding it to their menus.
This void in the supply chain led Chadwick — who’s also featured lionfish as an occasional special at his three other restaurants (in the Lower East Side, Aspen, and Nantucket) — to launch NormansLionfish.com, a wholesale platform where restaurateurs and regular people can order the fish directly to their doorstep, at a minimum order of five pounds. The site works two ways, with an option for fishermen in lionfish-afflicted areas to enroll as suppliers.

The fish are delivered with their spines still intact, and instructional cards on how to remove them with standard kitchen scissors.

“I want you to be able to show it to a 6-year-old and say, ‘Look at this thing,’” Chadwick says.

Encouragingly, demand for lionfish meat, as well as tourism centered around capturing the fish, is starting to put a small dent in their numbers, at least in areas easily accessed by divers. “We have resigned ourselves to the fact we are never going to eliminate the lionfish, [but] we are starting to get a handle on them,” Lowe says. “A lot of people want to try lionfish when they hear about it.

“It is beautiful, and the venomous spines make it intriguing. There is a lot of appeal to eating it.”

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RECIPE

Sean John’s Lionfish Escoveitch

Ingredients:

2 lb lionfish scaled and cleaned

1/4 cup tempura batter

Pinch salt and black pepper

Vegetable oil, for frying

Escoveitch Sauce

1 cup vinegar

1 cup water

1 tsp sugar

1 cup carrots and bell peppers

2-3 medium size onions, cut into rings

Scotch bonnet pepper to taste

6 pimento grains

Instructions:

Carefully cut off the spines using gloves and kitchen spears, scale and clean thoroughly, and prepare the fish for frying. Season the fish with pepper and salt, and lightly dust with tempura. Fry fish in ½-inch-deep oil. As soon as fish is opaque, fish is ready, so set aside.

For the dressing, boil one part water and one part vinegar, add a little more vinegar to the water for a stronger taste, with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Add julienne strip of peppers, carrots, onions and pimento grains. As soon as the liquid boils, set aside, cool down and pour over fried fish.

IMAGES:
A finished fried whole Lionfish and a fillet version is displayed at the Spur Tree at Norman’s Cay restaurant in the Lower East Side. LOUIS LANZANO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The stunningly colorful lionfish, an invasive species that was taken from a coral reef in the Bahamas, has become a culinary specialty. LAZARO RUDA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spur Tree co-owners Sean John (l.) and Ryan Chadwick (r.) have been turning lionfish into a delicious meal in the Northeast. LOUIS LANZANO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Lionfish enthusiasts say that it’s “one of the best-tasting fish on the reef.” LOUIS LANZANO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Chef and co-owner Sean John removes the poisonous fins of the Lionfish at the Spur Tree at Norman’s Cay restaurant. LOUIS LANZANO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The poisonous fins and spines can be removed with standard kitchen scissors. LOUIS LANZANO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The Spur Tree co-owners say that they’ve seen increased demand for lionfish, and chefs in the South have been adding it to their menus. LOUIS LANZANO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A lionfish can eat 10 times its body weight every day, and generally have to be caught by a spear, scuba gear and a little bit of courage. HO

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