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When I think about my birthday – and I am still fortunate to think about it – I remember the baby eels or the angulas as they are called in Spain. This great delicacy popped up on the menu at some of the better restaurants in Madrid around the time of my birthday (April 27th) or, more often than not, the maitre d would simply whisper “I recommend angulas as a starter.” These fresh water eels from the Basque country are presented in a clay pot after having been cooked quickly in olive oil with garlic cloves and a hot pepper. They are served with a wooden fork so you “won’t bruise the eels,” but I suspect that it also helps to keep those slippery worms on the fork.

In the early eighties, not too many people outside of Spain knew about angulas with the exception of the French: who never overlook anything when it comes food. In fact, it was the French who drove up the price of angulas claiming that it was “too much of a delicacy for the uneducated Spanish palette” (It sounds less rude in French). Imagine what the French would have said if they had discovered that a Gringo was chowing down on these baby eels from the Basque country. I understand that people in Europe now pay 1,ooo Euros per kilo for angulas. No less of an authority in “good” fish than Eric Ripert, serves angulas at Le Bernardin at $100 a serving.

I must say, that the thought of eating an eel turns off many people, but those who persevere will often agree that it is one of the finest fish you can eat. I am now firmly in that camp; but for many years after reading Günter Grass description of how they fished for eels in his ground-breaking novel The Tin Drum, it was a food item I avoided. According to Mr. Grass, they simply threw a horse head in the water in the evening with a hook attached and then pulled it out the next morning to discover how many eels had dined at the Hosehead Pub and decided to spend the night. Yep, I didn’t feel too good after reading that passage and, as you might imagine, it tainted my view of this great delicacy for many years.

For those fortunate enough to find “fresh” angulas, please indulge yourselves. You won’t be disappointed! I would certainly skip the tinned variety: simply ain’t the same http://clubcampestremorelia.com.mx/ccm3/?sposoby-na-lotto_15-05-2020&lang=pl-PL.

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