What a price for a lowly eel

In many cultures the lowly eel, quite different in shape from many other fish and looks mor like a snake has failed to attain respectability.

In Sri Lanka you get both freshwater and seawater varieties of eel. In many a rivers wherever there are deep holes of water village folks love to speak about mythical eels which wear golden ornaments - "Ran Kadukkan!" Fishing in these hinterland rivers is very rare since in the interior of the island many are more religious Buddhists than the ones living in the other places and very rarely would they take the life of an animal. But when once in a Blue moon, an eel is caught in a net, to prepare the eel to be cooked into a curry is a task only an expert could perform.

To cut the snake like eel into pieces is indeed an expert job since it is so slippery and holding it and cutting it need not only steady hands but a trick that would cut down the slippery nature of the strange elongated fish. To do that they cover the fish with some wood ash taken from their earthen stoves.

In many a kitchen in Sri Lanka there is wood ash since the fuel for cooking is firewood. It is even believed that by cooking with cinnamon firewood any curry could become tastier. Needless to say that if one cooks the eel curry using cinnamon firewood it would become tastier than cooked otherwise.

Of course, the ash covering the pieces of fish has got to be washed away before the pieces go into the cooking pot with creamy white coconut milk, fragrant spices, appetizing shallots, fresh and enticing green herbs and whatnot.Eating eel was never considered respectable since the fish looked like a snake.

There is no tradition of eating snake in the island at all. Even the mere thought of eating a snake would give a Sri Lankan man strong convulsive feelings. Once upon a time, the story goes, a self deceiving man cooked the eel into a curry and declared that he did not eat the flesh but would only eat the sauce!

In Sri Lanka people eat their rice and curry using their fingers. So, on the top of it this man said he would also eat the flesh of the eel using a piece of stick like a fork without ever touching it with his fingers. A verse narrating it goes like this: I do not eat eel - I only eat its sauce - I do not eat the pieces - I only eat them with a piece of stick sauce - I do not eat the pieces - I only eat them with a piece of stick! (Anda malu nokan - hodi vitharak kan) (Keli nokan - Pol Iraten kan)

When I was visiting Manhattan New York recently. I was given a ride to nearby New Jersey, by a friend, Janaka Nanayakkara for a dinner at his house. When we were passing a commercial aquarium, known as Shark Aquarium, that sells pets both sea water and fresh water at Hillsdale, my friend told me, in the shop the main attraction is a Sri Lanka eel. He suggested that I break journey and have a look.

Although fascinated for a long time by mythical and true stories of eels I have never seen one alive at a close range in the wild. So, I did break journey. Spotted like a strange snake the five-year old eel was about two feet long and at times hiding in a pipe laid in its sea water tank.

Eels even in the wild do need their hiding places. Caught in the Indian ocean near the coast of Sri Lanka the eel is known as Tesselata. It's scientific name is Gymnothorax favagineus. The store keeper, George Fear, proudly declares, "I have had it over a year; it's a king of a store pet, but definitely for sale". He even said he could ship it to any airport in California where I live.

And the price of the eel is 249.99 US dollars. That equals to 25,000 Sri Lanka Rupees. For an average fisherman who would not even eat the eel, the price is an unthinkable fortune. What a price for a lowly eel unsung by people of its native land!

Walter Jayawardhana.