"eel" news and stories

Sounds terrible - an ice cream made from fish, but it could make an ice cream that won't pile on the pounds as you eat.

The Times has a report that Unilever, which produces Wall's, Magnums, Carte D'Or and Ben and Jerry's ice cream has applied to the UK's Food Standards Agency for permission to use a fish protein in a range of ice creams and fruit ices. The North Atlantic Pout is an eel-like fish whose blood, using GM technology, has been made into a protein that will cut the fat and calories in ice cream.

If accepted it could be 2008 before the protein appears in products.

Despite the fact that the technology leaves no edible traces of GM material in the finished product - rather like the use of vegetarian rennet in cheese the use of a GM product has been criticized by many as a "stealth" way to introduce a GM product.

Source

Want a chance to taste smoked and jellied eels? Or maybe more conventional food such as s hog roast is more your bag?

The Ely (its a small city just north east of Cambridge) Eel Day this year is on the 29th April. It will be eels all the way with displays from the Environmental Agency and Ely Perspective Riverside Group as well as information and artefacts from the art of eel catching.  I also hear there will be a special beer brewed for the occassion as a one-off!

If the thought of an eel throwing competition is more a kids event and not for serious adults (swing that eel baby!) then Ely’s Boathouse Restaurant, beside the river, is offering a variety of eel dishes on the menu throughout the weekend.

Source

So I was mistaken. I called uni the best, and thought it would be the ultimate, but alas, it was the penultimate. It is everyone else in my family who order uni last because perhaps to them, the luscious, creamy flavor of sea urchin gonads truly is the best way to end a meal of sushi. For me, I make it unagi - freshwater eel that has been broiled or barbecued, then glazed with a sweet sauce. It really is sweet, and that is what makes it the best for last. If you're squeamish about raw fish, unagi might work since it is cooked, but then again, it is eel.

I love it when the unagi is charred to almost black on the edges, and inevitably end up burning the roof of my mouth with its soft, fatty flesh because I can't wait patiently for it to cool slightly from the oven. There is also saltwater eel, called anago, which is not barbecued like unagi. I have had it several times before, and it just fish filler. I'd much rather have the unagi.

Previous lessons at the School of Fish:
Saba - holy mackerel!
Hirame - white fish, sometimes halibut
Tai and Suzuki - snapper and sea bass
Maguro - tuna
Toro - fatty belly of tuna
Shiro Maguro - "white" tuna, aka albacore
Ahi tuna
Hamachi - amberjack, aka yellowtail
Sake - salmon
Gai - the bivalves, i.e.clams, scallops, and oysters
Ebi - shrimp
Ika and Tako - squid and octopus
Kani - crab
Masago and tobiko - roe, roe, roe your boat
Ikura - salmon roe
Uni - sea urchin (but not roe!)