Carp has all these damn fine bones. From what I understand, they pressure-cook the fish, which softens the bones, make meat into balls and roll it in corn meal and fried. Sorta like salmon croquettes I guess.
I haven't eaten 'carp balls', but I have had 'gar balls'.
My uncle and I were on one of our fishing binges at one of the local creeks that led into the lake. This big elderly black lady with her little husband and grandchildren were all fishing under the over pass in the shade, prime spot. We had just come back from a trot line run and she had to see our results. The only real standout was a 25lb Blue cat. She came out and asked if she could have it. I told her it was our only Blue and I like Blues the best for their firm meat and flavor. She asked me if it fought much. I told her yeah, but not as much as the big gar we caught. She hollered, "Oh Lordy No!" when I told her I shot it in the head and left it for fish food.
"You bring me back the next gar you catches, and I'll make you some gar balls!"
We made another run and came back with a fairly big 60lb gar. I shot it in the head, slipped a rope thru it's mouth and gills and dragged it beside the boat. I wasn't putting that damn nasty thing in my little boat.
You'd think we gave her a treasure chest with the way she hooped and hollered! She and two of her grandkids loaded the old pickup with the fish and took off for home. She came back a few hours later with a plate of hot gar balls. They must have lived very close. I'm not gonna hurt her feelings, so I ate one. I did like the spice she added. It must have been some Cajun recipe of sorts.
It was good. I just couldn't really get over eating a damn gar.
That started out all too wrong 
