December 2003 Product Spotlight
EelThe culinary value of eel is easily overlooked, likely due
to an American aversion to the fish's snakelike, slithering appearance.
But that hasn't always been the case. The flesh of this fascinating creature,
an important ingredient in European and Japanese cuisine, was a mainstay food
in Colonial America.
Native Americans taught settlers to capture eels from muddy river bottoms.
"Eel rapidly became a staple in the colonists' diet," wrote Richard Schweid in his book "Consider the Eel," published in 2002.
The first signs of eel-inspired squeamishness appeared in recipe notes in cookbooks published just after the Civil War. By the time World War II ended, the only Americans eating eel were the Italians, Polish and Irish, staying true to the cuisine of their ethnic heritage, says Schweid.
Now, sushi bars are reintroducing Americans to eel, and eel sales are steadily growing as the popularity of sushi continues to rise.
About 35 percent of Americans eat sushi, and once his customers try it, they typically eat it once a week, says Kevin Y. Aoki, VP of marketing for Benihana, the Miami-based Asian restaurant chain.
To capitalize on the sushi trend, the company has added sushi bars to nearly all of its 41 teppanyaki-style restaurants, at which chefs prepare steak, chicken and seafood on a steel grill at the diners' table.
Benihana also operates three Sushi Doraku restaurants and two Haru sushi restaurants. Sushi represents 20 percent of the company's sales.
"We believe this trend will just keep rising," Aoki says, because sushi offers increasingly health-conscious Americans a high-protein, low-fat, low-calorie food with beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.
Eel, most often called unagi, ranks fourth in popularity, behind tuna, salmon and yellowtail, when people order sushi á la carte, says Aoki.
"Americans are afraid to eat eel, but when they try it once, they're hooked," he says.
Most eel sold in the United States is imported from Asia and sold to the sushi trade, say suppliers. China was the largest exporter of eel in 2002 and in 2003. This year's U.S. eel imports through August - 1.5 million pounds worth $4.8 million - are up by 40 percent over the same period last year.
The farmed eels from China are primarily the Japanese species
Anguilla japonica and Anguilla anguilla, and a small amount of the American
East Coast eel, Anguilla rostrata.
Saltwater eel, a wild product from Korea or China, is sold as a frozen, head-on,
raw boneless fillet. A tiny amount of product makes it past Japanese buyers
to the U.S. market for the most traditional of sushi bars, says Peter Huh, president
of Pacific American Fish Co. in Los Angeles. Korean saltwater eel sells for
about $4.65 to $4.95 per pound.
Farmed eel is skinned and then cooked or barbecued over gas or charcoal with
a soy-based marinade. It is sold ready-to-use in 6- to 10-ounce fresh or frozen
vacuum-packed fillets.
Sushi chefs cut the barbecued fillet into smaller pieces to
use in rolls or atop finger-shaped portions of sushi rice and typically top
them with their restaurant's signature sauce.
Benihana buys pre-cooked, marinated, vacuum-packaged eel fillets, grills the
portions for four to five menu items and serves them with a secret sauce.
Una-ju is grilled eel served over rice with miso soup for $13.95 for dinner. Grilled eel is served over finger-shaped portions of rice for $3.95 for two pieces. Unagi nigiri is grilled freshwater or saltwater eel and Anago nigiri is grilled saltwater eel.
Dragon and caterpillar rolls include eel, avocado and sushi rice for $10.95 for six pieces.
Demand for saltwater eel has dropped as sushi has become more Americanized and there are fewer customers who have a traditional preference for saltwater eel.
"Sushi connoisseurs know the texture," says Huh. "They can taste the difference [between freshwater and saltwater eel]. Freshwater unagi has been really popular. It's very simple, already prepared and there seems to be a stronger preference for that texture and taste by the American palate."
Huh says unagi sales at Pacific American Fish are about 40 percent ahead of last year, while sales of saltwater eel are slowing down.
Eel is a high-priced protein compared to almost any fish item besides fatty tuna, and the food cost menu for items that feature eel is 40 to 45 percent, says Aoki.
"We don't look at eel as an item we're making a profit on," explains Aoki. "We look at it as accompanying the whole experience of the customer.
"And the good thing about eel is that it's always available."
Due to the farm-raised nature of the product, supply has been stable, say suppliers, and eel wholesales at between $4 and $5.
Eel farming expanded from Taiwan to China in the last several years and stabilized the price, says Don Park, president of Interstate Seafood in Los Angeles. Prices increase when the Japanese markets are buying the product, says Park.
Suppliers recommend that buyers of unagi make sure the product has come from a clean pond, otherwise the eel takes on a muddy, musky taste.
Eel flesh turns soft if the animal is not immediately processed after it is killed. Better-quality unagi, is pro-cessed live, says Park; the term for that is ikajini. Buyers should watch out for low-priced unagi because it may have been processed from dead eel and have soft flesh.
Seventy percent of Interstate's unagi sales are to distributors selling to sushi restaurants, and the remainder is sold to Asian supermarkets as an ingredient in Asian dishes like grilled eel over rice.
Retail sales are limited primarily to Asian markets. But the retail market for eel is growing, says Hideo Yamagata, the seafood buyer for Marukai, a Japanese supermarket with four stores in Los Angeles and four in Hawaii.
Marukai sells the pre-cooked, marinated unagi in 8- or 10-ounce
packages to customers who like to make sushi at home and use it as an ingredient
in Asian lunchbox meals.
The labor required to produce high-quality eel flesh is one reason for the popularity
of the ready-to-cook product form.
"All you do is heat it up, slice it and prepare it,"
says Park. "Who has time to kill the eel, drain the blood, skin it and
cook it yourself? It's too much time and too much labor."
Eel is also sold live in some parts of the country to dedicated home cooks and
chefs willing to skin and butcher the animal themselves.
Eel is becoming more popular with mainstream consumers and sales are growing a little bit each year, says Yamagata.
The next growth spurt in the eel business, some suppliers predict, will be in pre-cooked eel for use in fusion dishes.
"I don't think people have really discovered blending eel in with food yet," says Aoki, "but with innovators like [chefs at] Haru, Nobu and Doraku, I could see eel growing into other dishes than una-ju."