Rusty_Hinge wrote in
. uk:

The message 3
from Tom contains these words:

Last weekend I bought razor clams at the same shop. Delicious
when sauteed for 60s, but some people don't like watching them
wriggle immediately before cooking. But perhaps this is
meandering a bit too far off topic.

In 1958 when I was hiking round the Highlands I caught an eel. A big
hooter. I cut off its head, and it wriggled.

I skinned it, and it writhed.

I cut into sections, and they twitched.

They only stopped twitching when they were cooking nicely.

Despite the twitchiness, the eel was delicious - and revolted several
passers-by.

Oh eels. Especially freshly hot-smoked.

There's the last surviving mud-horse fisherman in
the UK, (Adrian Sellick in Stolford *), and he regularly
catches eels in his nets, and then keeps them alive in
a Belfast sink. As my daughter found out, you can't
lift the eels out with your hands, you have to scoop/flick
them out.

Once upon a time everyone would have known why "as slippery
as an eel" is an apt simile. (And "flying by the seat of
your pants" has real meaning in a glider, but that's
another tangent).

Anyway, I once bought some eels from a local fishmonger
and asked that they kill them. After 5 mins of thumping
out back, the eels were subdued (with a hammer to the
skull) and put in a carrier bag.

I duly put them in the fridge door and, when I came back
an hour later, I had to retrieve one from somewhere else
in the fridge.


[*]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/may/31/foodanddrink.shopping