HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Consider the Eel by Richard Schweid
Loading...

Consider the Eel (edition 2002)

by Richard Schweid

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
713371,471 (4.43)3
Journalist Richard Schweid first learned the strange facts of the freshwater eel's life from a fisherman in a small Spanish town just south of Valencia. ""The eeler who explained the animal's life cycle to me did so as he served up an eel he had just taken from a trap, killed, cleaned, and cooked in olive oil in an earthenware dish,"" writes Schweid. ""I ate it with a chunk of fresh, crusty bread. It was delicious. I was immediately fascinated."" As this engaging culinary and natural history reveals, the humble eel is indeed an amazing creature. Every European and American eel begins i… (more)
Member:landsake
Title:Consider the Eel
Authors:Richard Schweid
Info:The University of North Carolina Press (2002), Hardcover, 200 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:None

Work Information

Consider The Eel: A Natural And Gastronomic History by Richard Schweid

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 3 mentions

Showing 3 of 3
I know, I know. Eels are icky. They're twisty and slimy and thoroughly unappealing. And yet, I couldn't put this book down. Schweid does for eels what Ellis did for Giant Squid or Kurlansky did for cod: take a maligned or little-known creature and show us the wonder to be found.

Did you know we're still not really sure how eels mate? Or that we wouldn't have a clue where they gave birth if someone hadn't accidentally found a tiny, translucent elver in the Sargasso Sea? It really blows me away that humanity has been interacting with eels for a good long time and we still have so many unanswered questions.

Scweid also introduces us to various people who have some connection to eels, either through their culture or their job (eel fishermen) or their fascination (eel scientist). He does an excellent job introducing us to these people and letting them tell their own stories.

On top of all this, Schweid gives a culinary history of eels, complete with recipes and his own culinary adventures in tracking the recipes down.

Who would have thought that the humble eel would prove so fascinating? ( )
  Mrs_McGreevy | Nov 17, 2016 |
Rather unusual for me to be reading a book on food, particularly seafood, and not be stimulated to cook and eat it. Ell, like gator-tail, chocolate-covered locust, dog, mealy-grub, and snake however are foods that I have decided not to eat again – once, maybe for some, twice - was enough.

However, it is fascinating animal and well worth the considering given to it by Schweid, a Barcelona ex-pat from Nashville, who savors the “rich, fish taste” of eel like a true European. Still largely unknown to science in all its habits, gestation, reproduction and even exactly how it selects it breeding and living grounds. Once chosen however; the eel settles “right in” growing and living in the same place for twenty, thirty or even (observed) 57 years. Then comes the long haul out, from fresh water to salt, to the middle of the Atlantic to breed – it is thought- in the Saragossa Sea, that mysterious Triangle off Bermuda. In order to perform the miracle of changing from a fresh-water fish to a pelagic the eel decides to stop eating, and its digestive tract atrophies! After breeding the offspring, having decided if they are Americans or Europeans, begin to swim back to those respective coasts, making a further triggered-decision not just of species, but of gender.

Americans no longer eat the eel, but the booming markets of Japan and North Europe are hard to satisfy, particularly – the old sad story – as pollution and over-fishing take the inevitable toll on the entire species. The smoked eel of northern Europe is celebrated throughout history and in all literature. There is a scene in Len Deighton’s Berlin Game where the hero orders schnapps after eating smoked-eel in a small Gasthaus up close to the “wall”. Merely, he insists as part of a long established German ritual, to wash the smell of eel off his fingers.

No, perhaps I will never eat eel again, but I now know much more about a fascinating animal from this well written intriguing book.
1 vote John_Vaughan | Aug 12, 2012 |
eels! i picked this book up with only a mild interest; when i put it down, i had developed a bona fide fascination with eels. an excellent read, engaging and informative, with historical, social, economic, biological and gastronomical context. ( )
  lindseynichols | Sep 6, 2007 |
Showing 3 of 3
Much of the charm of Consider the Eel is that Richard Schweid imparts his freshly acquired knowledge in the words of those directly involved in the industry. . . . Those who fish for or deal in eels . . . are a secretive bunch, and it says much for Schweid's professionalism and underlying sympathy that he was able to extract so much colour and interest from the men and women he sought out.
 
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Journalist Richard Schweid first learned the strange facts of the freshwater eel's life from a fisherman in a small Spanish town just south of Valencia. ""The eeler who explained the animal's life cycle to me did so as he served up an eel he had just taken from a trap, killed, cleaned, and cooked in olive oil in an earthenware dish,"" writes Schweid. ""I ate it with a chunk of fresh, crusty bread. It was delicious. I was immediately fascinated."" As this engaging culinary and natural history reveals, the humble eel is indeed an amazing creature. Every European and American eel begins i

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.43)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4 4
4.5
5 3

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,223,460 books! | Top bar: Always visible