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May 3, 2006

Eating Eels: Am I a Foodie Freak?

Every once in a while, I run across something that reminds me that my life is not exactly normal. That the choices I have made are not obvious to other people. I have come to realize that my choices in cuisine are somewhat uncommon, but the more amusing part of it to me is that most people don't realize it.

My parents still think I eat like I did when I was 13 years old. Back then, I was set on becoming a marine biologist (big surprise there) and I refused to eat any creature I might study. I liked salads. I liked very little else. My brothers would eat anything, but I was the family's picky eater. At least until my youngest brother developed his own set of bizarre tastes.

I refused to eat fish, and frankly, almost all meat, not to mention a variety of other things, until I left home and went to college. Even there, I had a pretty limited set of foods I really enjoyed. But then I started traveling and I came to some conclusions. The most important was that I was going to miss out on a very important cultural experience if I did not relax my rules about food and try stuff.

So I made a new rule: I would try just about anything and give it a shot. What I discovered was that I liked a huge number of foods - when they were prepared well. In Hawaii a decade ago, I discovered that fresh-caught fish was excellent, but I was still disgusted with crappy breaded pre-frozen fish sticks that I'd associated with "fish" as a child. Nowadays, I'm still as stubborn about food quality. I have no interest in paying for mediocre cuisine - like why would I order oysters in the Midwestern United States unless the place was famous for em?

The World Is My Oyster Menu!

In Japan, Hong Kong, South Africa, France.... the list is pretty long, I've sampled a huge variety of edibles, some weird but many quite tasty. All were foreign. I learned that the green stuff they pawn off on us in the United States is not real wasabi, but a powdered substitute that is nowhere near as good as the real thing. I learned that wild boar was one of the tastiest ingredients for fondue and hotpots and kudu antelope jerky is leaner because wild game in Africa has little chance to grow fat and complacent on the plains.

I think I've spit out something twice in the past decade and I felt terrible at the time and was discrete. The first time was in France. Chittering sausage at a restaurant in Paris. One would think sausage was a safe bet, but it was vile. Even Shane, the guy who will eat anything and like it, thought so. And this after all the blood puddings, garlicky snails, still-wiggling oysters that writhed in agony when you poured lemon juice and tabasco on them. The alligator on a stick, crawdaddies, and so many unidentifiable things in Asia that are probably better left that way so I might enjoy them in the future without thinking too hard. The second incident occured last year in New Orleans, when I bit into a frog's leg and it's knee popped. Really, I don't think I really should be blamed for spitting him out into a napkin and grabbing my umbrella drink on that particular horror.

Now, when I go out to dinner and see people ignoring the specials, instad ordering stuff like the teriyaki chicken plate (the equivalent of a kid's chicken finger plate on the menu) at a famous sushi restaurant, I feel bad for them.

When they taste something, having already made their decision to dislike it, and follow up with a great dramatic scene of dislike, I feel bad for them.

When we travel internationally and fellow visitors consistently request Western-style meals, I sigh. When it happens at places that specifically offer these services, that's cool. But going to a restaurant in Italy and complaining when their order doesnt look like what you get at Domino's is insulting. It's really no wonder Shane and I prefer to travel incognito, with the fewer people knowing we're American, the better.

Anyway, the point here is, I really don't think I'm a very picky eater anymore really, but now it seems like most Americans are. Even my parents aren't particularly adventurous when it comes to food, although they still tease me for being the picky one. Instead of embracing the cuisine of the rest of the world, we Americans prefer to mold and pervert it into our own version and expect the rest of the world to serve it to us. Then we call ourselves well-rounded, world-weary individuals when we hit up the local kabob joint or Chinese take-out that has often had to stoop to selling us the Americanized renderings. The authentic stuff is served up in the back and eaten by the cooks.

Last week, Shane and I were sitting in Mama's Fish House, a fantastic restaurant on Maui's north shore, drooling over their menu (the photo here is from a smiliar main course to what we ordered, snagged from their website). We were chatting with the waitress about her recommendations and the specials, and she hesitantly asked us, "Will you eat fish raw?" We both blinked. At first, I thought she was joking. You mean there are still people who won't? I mean adults, not my picky little brother or 16 year old sister-in-law.

We're in Hawaii. Damn right we're going to eat the sushi there, since it's fantastic. This particular restaurant can tell you the individual fisherman that caught your dinner, the boat it came off of, and exactly where it was hooked, too, so you can make informed decisions with regards to Seafood Watch. Just the day before, we had plowed through a Costco-sized portion of sliced ahi while sitting atop the volcanic peak of Haleakala. People kept walking by and commenting on our excellent taste.

Anyway, the question caught me off-guard. Living in California, we just take sushi for granted. Well, the people I hang around with do, anyway. And seared ahi is barely sushi from our perspective, anyway. It's cooked enough! At Mama's Fish House, we ordered:

Appetizer: Sliced premium quality Ahi Sashimi with real wasabi root dipping sauce and pickled ginger.
Salad: Ahi Sashimi Salad - Sashimi, Hana pohole fern, crispy won ton strips, Big Island ogo and wasabi goat cheese served with roasted sesame dressing.
Split Main Course: Two fish - Ono and another island fish (Opakapaka maybe?)- cooked in ti leaf "package" with coconut milk with Molokai sweet potato, baked banana, island pineapple, mango and papaya, two kinds of lychee and a fresh young coconut, served with slow-roasted Kalua Pig in the style of old Hawaii with Hanalei poi.
Dessert: A Trio of Creme Brulee - Passionfruit, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, and Mango
Drinks: Tried just about every drink on their menu, from the Mai Tai to the Citrus Mint Refresher (amazing). The
Framboise de Maui from Ulupalakua Ranch was especially nice with dessert, although a bit pricey to take home when our local Bonny Doon Vineyard Framboise is so good (and a quarter the price).

Everything we got was fantastic, in case you were wondering. I even packed up the cracked coconut garnish and gnawed on it at the airport. So good!

Anyway, I didn't really give the whole raw fish culinary weirdness another thought until today, when I ran across this adventure travel article about a guy who ate an eel.

So what does giant eel taste like?

Fatty and "a little off-putting" is the conclusion of writer Mike Randolph, who travelled to New Zealand's Waikato River to find out and wrote about his journey for Explore magazine.

He also decided, after catching and killing the 1 1/2-metre-long beast with some difficulty and cooking it on a grill, that portobello mushrooms are "not the ideal accompaniment." Their texture - "soft, chewy and slippery - is too similar to the eel flesh."

More At: Book of adventure travel articles includes eel tasting, rock climbing

My absolute first reaction was: WTF is this guy talking about, adventure travel?! And why are people listening with rapt attention as if he were Robinson Crusoe? What's the bloody big deal in eating an eel?

Do people who eat sushi not know that unagi is smoked freshwater eel and anago is saltwater eel? Unagi is one of the most popular sushi orders out there, after tuna and salmon. Unagi is my absolute favorite food in the world. And it's not just the Japanese cuisine that eats the slithering sea critters. The Brit Royals used to love Lamprey Pie.

There's a great little California-style sushi restaurant in Santa Cruz called Mobo. I often take people who don't know sushi there to try stuff for the first time and unagi has never failed to appeal to people: it's tasty and those who are concerned with the "raw" aspect are comforted by the tender barbequing process. Mobo makes a great roll called a Corruptor, which is unagi, basil, garlic and macadamia nuts. The whole roll can also be tempura'd to get it nice and crispy. You should try it sometime.

So ok, this guy did catch an eel and barbeque it up himself. I'll give him points for that.

But if he didn't do so with his bare hands, I'm just not impressed.

Spotted Moray Eel Shane Almost Stepped On. Doesn't He Look Tasty?

Posted by sorsha at May 3, 2006 2:03 PM