Creative cooks are raising awareness of wild invasive ingredients from the land and sea that can become part of our daily diet, helping conservation management efforts.
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The European green crab looks like any other shore crab you might encounter while turning over rocks in a tide pool. But there is nothing cute about these creatures turning up in our coastal waters.
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This ridiculously hardy species threatens inner local ocean ecosystems by destroying eelgrass, shellfish beds and outcompeting native crab species for prey. It is a very damaging invasive species that is well established on both Canada’s west and east coasts.
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Trying to completely eradicate invasive flora and fauna is nearly impossible. But one way to tackle the issue, if you can’t beat it, is to eat it.
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West Coast Table
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“European green crab was introduced by humans, obviously, and it is incredibly voracious, eating native crabs, damaging kelp forest and the females can lay thousands of really hearty eggs,” said chef Robyn Cort of Swallow Tail. “Off Sooke on Vancouver Island, they can catch up to 600 pounds a day in season, and they aren’t supposed to be there. For soups and stocks, I’d say it’s a better crab than our local Dungeness. So good to eat.”
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In B.C., you can harvest these crabs without an extra addition to your regular fishing licence and there are also community groups working to restore shoreline regions through aggressive removal of the species. Teaching folks how to enjoy them just motivates more catch, and Cort runs regular foraging classes to train people in the how, where and when to gather the invasive bounty in the water and on land.
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That is the thinking behind Eat the Invaders, a one-night charitable culinary event on May 22 hosted at LaSalle College that features a dozen of Vancouver’s top chefs from such celebrated establishments as Michelin-starred Burdock & Co turning everything from European green crabs, sea urchins and blackberries into unique, delicious dishes. Tickets are priced from $129-$169 at swallowtail.ca/eat-the-invaders. These creative cooks are coming together to raise awareness of the many ways that wild invasive ingredients from the land and sea can become part of our daily diet, helping conservation management efforts.
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“The two creatures we are focusing on with this event are things like really invasive species like the crabs, blackberries and bamboo, as well as the over-abundance of our native species that are causing harm such as sea urchin, or uni,” she said. “There is a real effort to see uni harvesting and consumption grow since it is both delicious and fun to use in different ways, like the uni ice cream prepared by chef Andrea Carlson of Burdock & Co.”
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This dish is a perfect example of the creative culinary approaches using sea urchin as an ingredient to capture both the delicate flavour, and pair it with sweet or savoury approaches. Along with Carlson, Pacific Reach’s Will Lew, Mama In The Kitchen’s Sharon Chan, Boulevard Kitchen’s Kenta Takehashi, Nourish’s Cheryl Chang, Secret Chef’s Thoshan, Kavita’s Tushar Tondvalkar, Good Thief’s Jonathan Lee, Acorn’s Matt Gostelow, NYC’s Joel Barohn, LaSalle’s Julian Bond and Swallow Tail’s Cort will be preparing samples to spotlight ingredients that pose serious ecological challenges.
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By reframing these invasive ingredients, the chefs aim to spark conversation around sustainability and responsible consumption. To be fair, it’s hard not to look at Kavita chef Tondvalkar’s stinging nettle yellow curry in pani puri and not feel peckish.
