I finally found pure, unseasoned eel!
I have been looking for a really long time, since it is one of the few types of seafood that falls naturally within a ketogenic fat to protein ratio. Some other types of fish are salmon with skin, Atlantic mackerel, sablefish with skin (also known as black cod), and sanma (also known as pike mackerel or saury).
But pure, unseasoned eel, had just been really, really hard to find. I even made a special order with the local meat and fish market, but all they could get was the unagi (seasoned) eel which was the same as what I could find in my local Asian grocery store. It is covered and marinated in a sugary sauce which I cannot eat because of my gut sensitivity.
But I happened to go to a much larger international grocery store in a larger city yesterday, and they not only had plain unseasoned eel in the freezer section, but they even had it in the fresh seafood counter too! So amazing!
I bought two packs of Vietnamese frozen eel. My friend charcoal grilled some of it up for dinner yesterday for us since I was so eager to try it. It was wonderful! It is important to note, to not even try to slice it or cut out the bone before cooking. It is just to slippery to cut! But after grilling, the verterbrae were easy to pull out. The meat was incredibly mild and tender, with no fishy taste at all, surprisingly! It really tasted more like chicken than anything. The skin was great on the grill, a little crispy and easy to eat. I have no idea why it is always smothered in sauce, there is really no need for that at all.
It was a little expensive, because when you take the vertebrae out, there's not much meat there. So it will have to be only a special treat from time to time. Also, I have trouble believing it actually is fatty. This particular Vietnamese species seemed very lean, and the skin did not seem very fatty either. Not like when I cook mackerel, and it is wonderfully oily! I am just hoping that maybe the eel skin really does have some fat in it. Edited to add: I discovered there are two kinds of eel that the Japanese like to eat: unagi (which is the usual seasoned one that is very oily), and anago, which is leaner. I wonder if that is what I got?
Also, while I was in the big city, and still having gut pain in the morning from having had pork, I decided to get some time in the infrared sauna. I was able to find a place there that had a special deal for two people for just $25 for 30 minutes. So just $12.50 apiece! That was great. And it really helped. I came out after 30 minutes and felt 100% myself again within the hour. My gut pain entirely stopped! Too bad we don't have one of those in my hometown. We do have typical steam saunas though.
I'm thinking, because of the gut pain, I might just throw away the hundreds of dollars' worth of gourmet pork in my freezer. What a shame. But I just can't eat it without horrible gut pain, depression, and digestive problems. I will continue eating a wide variety of red meats and fish and their organs and offal, but I will definitely no longer include any pork, poultry, or eggs!
And speaking of eggs, I was hoping to find salmon roe at the Asian store without additives. But unfortunately, the salmon roe and smelt roe both had wheat, soy, and other additives. And all this time when I would go to Japanese restaurants, I thought those items were safe! Lesson learned. Nothing can be assumed!
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