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Eels

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:40 pm
by paperboy
Once every couple of weeks (probably around the end of the 1950s) my Mum would send me to the wet fish shop on Jamaica Road, between Sun Passage and Thurland Road. I would be required to select three live eels from those slithering in the galvanised tank. The fishmonger would then use a large cleaver to take off the head and the tail end of each eel and discard these bits in the waste bin. The rest of the eel was chopped into sections of about 1½ inches, wrapped in old copies of the Daily Mirror or The Herald so that I could carry my purchase home. Mum would stew the eels and make her own liquor for our dinner, served with mash, of course.

Re: Eels

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:03 pm
by Sean.Byrne
paperboy wrote:Once every couple of weeks (probably around the end of the 1950s) my Mum would send me to the wet fish shop on Jamaica Road, between Sun Passage and Thurland Road. I would be required to select three live eels from those slithering in the galvanised tank. The fishmonger would then use a large cleaver to take off the head and the tail end of each eel and discard these bits in the waste bin. The rest of the eel was chopped into sections of about 1½ inches, wrapped in old copies of the Daily Mirror or The Herald so that I could carry my purchase home. Mum would stew the eels and make her own liquor for our dinner, served with mash, of course.



As a little boy my parents treated me to winkles, cockles and shrimp. Apparently it was unusual for a lad of my age to like this food. But when they tried to introduce me to potted jellied eels that was a bridge too far.

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I was always fascinated by the fishmonger chopping up the live eels at the market. For some reason it did not seem to faze me.