My battle with live eels goes way back. While in high school I would visit my grandparents out on Long Island every summer. They lived on a tidal inlet on the north shore where I would kayak and snorkel. This is where it all began.
While cruising the inlet one day I noticed an eel in the sea weed of a shallow bend in the inlet. Though it slightly scared me I wanted to catch it. I have had smoked eel in sushi and wanted to cook my own now. But how? Wading in the shallow water I attempted to sneak up behind it and grab it but was too scared. Then when one swam away it slithered around my ankle freaking me out. I jumped around screaming like a little girl. It was on now. I had to show my manliness. But I needed another method of hunting, plus I didn’t know if I would be able to hold onto the slippery eel if I was even able to grab it.
The next summer I returned with an old broom handle onto which I had attached a sharpened and barbed coat hanger wire. Modeling my spear after the one Tom Hanks used in Castaway. Movie weapons are always the best. With my younger cousin in tow I returned to the spot where I had seen the eels the year before. After a failed day of not seeing any eels we got there at the right time to find a few resting in the sea weed.
After a few misses I found myself standing over a monster. As big around as a soda can and about five feet long he laid in the weeds without knowing of our presence. Calming my shaking hands and racing heart I took a deep breathe and plunged my spear right into the center of his back. Well this just pissed him off and he began to violently thrash about. This just made me dig my spear in deeper hoping to hold him to the bottom and tire him out. My cousin screaming “Should I stab him! Should I stab him!” with the old hunting arrow I had tied to a stick for him. Fearing in the chaos he would end up stabbing me in the foot rather than stabbing the eel I told him not to. It was at this moment that the eel gave his last thrash snapping the coat hanger wire clean in half taking off like a bat out of Hell into deeper water never be seen again.
So I have a vendetta as you can see. I wanted an eel.
I remember when visiting Fordham as an incoming freshman I saw live eels in a tank on Arthur Ave but had yet to see them since. So when I saw them at the fish market the other day I had to buy them. Not worrying about the price I bought two live eels. The fishmonger asking if I wanted them alive or dead to which I told him that I wanted to kill them myself. He laughed and put them squirming into a bag for me.
Returning to my apartment my friends were a little freaked out. Plus they had been drinking for most of the day so were not ready for what they were about to see. Dumping the eels into the sink full of water they began to swim around and I was having second thoughts. What the hell am I doing?
But unlike when I was a kid I was not going to wimp out this time. So I psyched myself up, called my friends into the kitchen, and went for it. I’ll let the video tell the rest.
My friends were slightly freaked out by it, as told by their reactions, but this is the reality every time we eat meat, something has to die and it is not pretty. Eels are lively though. They kept moving a half hour after the heads were gone making skinning the slimy beast extremely difficult. The head of one did get some revenge however, biting me when I went to throw it in the garbage. Also as you can see when I pull my hand away really fast I cut myself slightly. But at the time I thought I had not actually broke the skin. Later though I did notice a cut in that spot on my hand. My blood was probably covered by the eels but I also think that the slim secreted by the eel worked as a coagulator closing the cut.
As for cooking an eating the eel I rummaged through my old cookbooks to find two preparations. One was eel cooked in red wine with vegetables. This was my favorite.
The other was a soup which I was not that fond of. But also I burnt my leeks when cooking it, distracted by my friends, and burnt leeks are just a horrible smell and taste.
Will I be eating eel again the future? You can bet. It was delicious. The taste is not fishy at all and has a soft wonderful texture. Plus killing them is an adventure.
Jesus Christ, Tom. That was unreal.
-Your upstairs neighbor, Steve