Renegade_R said:
I think it all comes down to a matter of taste. The Japanese love the taste of raw fish but for some reason always cook the eel with a barbecue sauce. If that is the case, most likely raw eel does not taste very appealing (and judging by its cooked texture, probably doesn't have a pleasant texture when raw).
Then again, a second thought could be that it is for mass appeal. You wouldn't exactly eat a raw snake after all.
True, but across my research (the minor amounts i've done) the few people that have eaten it apparently prefer it to cooked.
I DID have a thought about it though. I'm wondering if its due to the dirtiness of the eel, and that its an unskinned food (as far as i know, anyway). When you eat sushi (tuna, salmon, etc), you're eating meat from within the fish. I don't think eels are skinned when they're prepared for food. Bacteria is all over a fish's body, but because the meat is inside, you're not exposed to it.
Kinda like the difference between preparing hamburger and steak. Steak should be cooked because of bacteria on the outside of the meat. You can eat it pink/red on the INSIDE because the outside thats been exposed has been cooked. Hamburger on the other hand SHOULD be prepared with a solid cooking, because all the outsides and insides have been ground together, so the bacteria is all through it. (hope that made sense)
Based off of this, it would make sense that some people HAVE had raw eel, because they were at the right place and the right time of preparation. Clean kitchen, fresh eel, etc etc. And also why you can't get it everywhere. Due to travel and general uncleanliness of wherever its being prepared, they cook it to kill the bacteria and possible viruses residing on such a yummy water-based creature.
This is all assumption, of course, but it makes sense. Any other thoughts? Confirmations? Yadda yadda?
