You wouldn't ever try eels if you had cooked them. I fried up eels for the family once and they were so active in the frying pan that I couldn't bring myself to eat one. DH and the kids all loved them.My husband used to go fishing at night near our place and he came home with several Bream and 2 eels. Gave the eels to the next-door neighbour, they are Italian and loved them. They gave us one to taste. I tried it but could see all the spine which reminded me of a snake, put me right off it.