Interesting Food: The Eel.

For as long as I could hold a pole, I fished. Night fishing in the Long Island Sound yielded blowfish, porgies an occasional small shark and lots of eels. Not a nice fish to catch. They wind up in the line with their slimy bodies and are hard to untangle. And, the slime has a nasty smell. My father loved them so we kept them for him. I refused to come close to the kitchen when he cooked and ate them. No slimy eel was going to pass my lips.
Then came that fateful day in Taiwan. Sal and I were honored guests at a sea food banquet (casual dress as you can see). One of the dishes (the dish names were printed in English for us) was called “net-catching dyctiophora”. We were assured it was a delicacy, very expensive, so we tried it. Good sauce. Another dish was simply called “eels”. You know the dilemma: don’t eat the eels and insult the hosts. Eat them and puke. We ate them. We didn’t puke. Good sauce saved the day. As the photos show, we had to eat with gusto. We did. Good sauce. If you ever are forced to eat an eel, insist on good sauce and like the advice my father gave me for oysters, don’t chew, just swallow.

Image: Photo of Sally and Woody eating small eels.