One Person's Trash Fish Is Another Missouri Town's Delicacy

Summer festivals are ubiquitous (especially across the Midwest), and often highlight the local food specialty, be it corn, apples or beef. But when the food has a less-than-glamorous reputation, a town has a decision to make.
Decades ago, the small town of Nixa in Missouri’s Ozarks embraced what is often called a garbage fish. Catostomidae, better known as a sucker fish, is a bottom-feeder that’s plentiful in the cold waters of the Ozark Plateau. It’s also filleted, fried and at the center of Nixa Sucker Days.
The 62nd annual festival, which took place May 17-18, looks like any small-town fair: carnival rides for the kids, a dunk tank where you can try to douse the mayor, craft booths and local musicians. There was also the standard compliment of fair food: funnel cakes, corn dogs and onion rings.
But the star is the fried sucker fish.