Eels and Octopi

[Joseph_H]

Every other weekend I help my girlfriends family prepare dinner and I eat with them afterwards. I try to be pretty open-minded about things and will try most dishes, but something just rubs me wrong about eating invertabrates, especially eel, which both my girlfriend and her mom love.

I didn't think it would be a big deal if I didn't eat any, but my girlfriend has been telling me that it looks really bad if I won't eat her mother's favorite dish. She's says I'm being too closed-minded about it.

So... should I just suck it up and try some? I'm seriously concerned that I might gag on this stuff; I mean, they hide under rocks and bite people, I don't want any part of that. Any insight or advice?

[Ian_Lee]

they hide under rocks and bite people

But chickens will bite you too if you try to catch them. So are you going to eat chickens?

There is a eating problem with American that if they never eat that stuff when they were kids, they would never try it when they become adults.

Now I train my kids by exposing them to different kinds of exotic food so that they won't be so stubborn like their classmates whom only love pepperoni pizza!

[geraldc]

but something just rubs me wrong about eating invertabrates, especially eel

Eels have vertabrae...Eel is also a traditional western dish, it used to feature in the every day diet of the Londoner.

Just think of it as a long thin fish, which is what it is.

I think these days no one is offended if you choose not to eat a certain food. No one criticises a vegetarian for not eating meat. A lot of the time we order "strange" foods when we have guests, just so we can watch their reactions (although maybe my family are just particularly cruel). If you want to call their hand give them a selection of blue cheeses (stilton, danish blue, gorgonzola etc) and see if they'd be willing to eat them.

[skylee]

There is a eating problem with American that if they never eat that stuff when they were kids, they would never try it when they become adults.

Not just Americans. This is a personal thing.

[Ian_Lee]

A lot of the time we order "strange" foods when we have guests

It all depends on how you define "strange".

For me, food items like eel or beef tongue (You won't believe that a lot of Americans never try beef tongue) are very "normal".

On the other hand, hamburger is a very "strange" food to me. I wonder why would someone love to eat hamburger which tastes so bland and which is so prone to Ebola contamination?

[geraldc]

It all depends on how you define "strange".

My grandmother's hometown is Panyu in Guangdong, their local speciality is fried silkworm. I think that qualifies as strange in quite a few cuisines.

[Green Pea]

Hmmmm......I love eel and octopi. Had a nice slab of eel with a pile of spicy jellyfish for lunch today.

I think these days no one is offended if you choose not to eat a certain food. No one criticises a vegetarian for not eating meat. A lot of the time we order "strange" foods when we have guests, just so we can watch their reactions (although maybe my family are just particularly cruel). If you want to call their hand give them a selection of blue cheeses (stilton, danish blue, gorgonzola etc) and see if they'd be willing to eat them.

I don't think it is just your family. Many have tried this on me. I love it when they do because I can eat anything. I love to knock back some juicy guts to the amazement of my hosts. I then tell them it was so good that they should order some more. At that point the excuses usually start to flow...like they really don't like it themselves or it's very expensive.

[Catdiseased]

Eel or Octopi are quite everyday food to me. IMHO really strange things, which are also very very expensive, are for example Wang4 Ji1 Dan4, chicken embryos still in their eggs...it reminds me of....Alien the movie.

I'm usually very open minded, especially compared to my "Western" friends. But there are things that are just to much.

[Ian_Lee]

Actually octopi is a really "normal" food item for any people who live close to the ocean.

But it can be abnormal depending on the way you eat it.

Chinese is very normal on this aspect. Octopi is cooked before eating.

But for Korean, octopi can be eaten cooked, raw or alive.

[Lu]

Like Green Pea, I like to amaze my host by being able to eat almost everything. I like to judge food by its taste, not by what (part of the) animal it comes from, or how it was prepared. And I'd really like to try the Korean living squid.

[Quest]

You would think eels and squids/octopi are normal after you see this:

LIVE! scorpion

Dehydrated Centipede

De-skinned Poisonous Toad

Cooked Spider

[Gary Soup]

I became enamored of eel dishes in Shanghai, but ironically my wife, who cooks nothing but Shanghainese food, won't touch it. She claims that you can't get the "right" kind of eel in the US (you can, actually imported from Shanghai, but frozen). I think she doesn't really like eel. We have cuttlefish often, and squid (usually with huo guo) but always cooked.

[woodcutter]

I wonder why would someone love to eat hamburger which tastes so bland and which is so prone to Ebola contamination

Eh? Isn't ebola a very rare african disease?

[bhchao]

I consider Korean Bulgogi a good substitute for hamburger, which is all processed meat.

It is not uncommon to find foods like shredded pig ears in Chinese restaurants (mostly Taiwan Delis) in LA.

[sandra_49202@yahoo.com]

I boil my eel and it taste good.Do you know other way I can do. Also snake meat.

[Green Pea]

I boil my eel and it taste good.Do you know other way I can do.

I nuke my eel.

[Claw]

I wonder why would someone love to eat hamburger which tastes so bland and which is so prone to Ebola contamination

Eh? Isn't ebola a very rare african disease?

I think he meant to say E. coli (Escherichia coli), a very common bacteria found in fecal matter which can sometimes be transferred to improperly cooked meat.

[MadLu]

I saw recipe which cooks eels stir fry with black bean source.

[sandra_49202@yahoo.com]

what all I need to put in stir fry with the eel the regular veggie, then mix it with the black bean? I want to try it out.

[MadLu]

Here we go:

225-275g/8-10oz eel fillet, skinned

1½ tsp cornflour

1½tbsp Chinese fermented salted black beans

½ tsp caster sugar

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 garlic cloves, cut into fine shreds

2.5cm/1in piece of peeled fresh ginger, cut into very thin shreds

1 medium-hot red finger chilli, thinly sliced

3 tbsp/1½fl oz/45ml Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

1 tsp dark soy sauce

4 springs onions, cut on the diagonal into long, thin slices

salt

Method

1. Cut the eel diagonally into pieces 2.5cm/1in wide. Toss with a little salt and then the cornflour. Put the black beans, sugar and 2 tbsp/1fl oz/30ml of cold water into a small bowl and crush to a coarse paste.

2. Heat a wok over a high heat until it is smoking hot. Add the sesame oil and garlic, quickly followed by the ginger, red chilli and black bean paste. Stir-fry for a few seconds, then add eel pieces and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the rice wine or sherry, soy sauce and 3-4 tbspof water and cook for 2 minutes, until the eel is cooked through.

3. Add the spring onions to the wok and stir-fry for about a minute. Serve immediately, with some steamed rice.