"eel" news and stories

You've seen the "dirty dozen" list for produce -- fruits and vegetables that are laden with pesticides, making it worth the cost of buying organic. But did you know there's also a dirty dozen list for fish? Food & Water Watch -- a non-profit group that works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced -- publishes an annual "do not eat" list.

Why is it noteworthy? As Barry Estabrook, writer at The Atlantic, explains in a recent article, "Seafood guides tend to focus either on species that should be avoided for reasons related to environmental health (overfishing) or species that should be avoided for reasons related to human health (their flesh is contaminated with chemicals). Food and Water Watch publishes a useful guide that takes both concerns into account."

The below fish fail at least two of their criteria for safe and sustainable seafood. The five criteria are: contaminants; status of the stock; catch method or farming method; economic/social/cultural significance (a community predominantly fishes for this species and depends on it); and key species (it's a primary food source for other wildlife or does it create critical habitat for other wildlife).

• Imported catfish
• Caviar from wild-caught sturgeon
• Atlantic cod
• American eel
• Atlantic flounder, sole, and halibut
• Imported king crab
• Imported shrimp
• Farmed salmon
• Chilean seabass
• Shark
• Atlantic bluefin tuna

The good news? Food & Water Watch offers a downloadable wallet-size guide to "smart" seafood, and also has resources on the site to help you find sustainable alternatives based on your fish tastes (mild, thick and flavorful, etc.).

Are you a sushi fact whiz? Test your food trivia smarts with this fun sushi trivia and facts quiz.

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento, courtesy of Japan-based Moogs, is a "real" bento - that is to say, it's from a Japanese convenience store, not homemade. It's got some sort of mixed rice, three chunks of barbecued eel, a wedge of orange squash, green beans, bamboo shoot and lotus root. You can take these bento up to the convenience store counter and have the clerk heat it up for you. You think 7-11 will start carrying these?

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I'm usually glad to peruse tomorrow's New York Times headlines when it comes to food as I did last night. I say usually because last night the news I learned was rather disturbing. The FDA has issued an alert about the safety of five types of farm-raised seafood imported from China. It seems that multiple tests showed contamination from carcinogens and antibiotics.

The five types of seafood in question are shrimp, catfish, eel, basa (a type of catfish) and dace (Chinese mud carp). These fish will have to be tested before they can be sold in the U.S. The FDA noted that there's no immediate health threat, but that prolonged exposure could cause health problems. Somehow that doesn't make me feel very safe, probably because I've consumed more than a few cans of canned dace with black bean sauce in my day. And the ban may not be such good news for fish eaters in general, either. Chinese seafood accounts for 21 percent of all seafood imports. Shrimp lovers may be hit especially hard since it's the number one seafood imported from China.

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Hasn't it been beaten to death yet? Everywhere you look, the most hyped movie of the summer that stars Samuel L. Jackson has infiltrated our language so that all we can say is "[something] on a [something]." Even here at Slashfood, we've had Snakes on a Cake, and Snakes on Some Toast. Both were cute, but you know, not as frightening as real snakes on a real plane, right?

But Deep End Dining's Eddie Lin has really done it on his blog, which, unlike other mini-spoofs, are real snakes on something that sounds about as close to "plane" as you can get - a plate. Phong Dinh Restaurant in Rosemead, CA put the snakes on the plate, and Eddie ate them. Granted, he was disappointed that the snake meat was ground and wrapped in leaves, but the restaurant redeemed itself by also presenting him with whole eels on a plate. Close enough.

See Eddie's post for the details of his encounter with snakes on a plate.