Dragon eel? 盤龍鱔

Eating eel can be an acquired taste.  I can remember being repulsed by the thought of this slithery worm like creature - why would I want to eat it?  And I didn't, not when I was growing up.  The eel my family had was usually served in a hot pot and was considered a specialty dish.  I have since outgrown this distaste and really enjoyed the eel I've tried in sushi houses (not the same kind of eel) and also in Chinese restaurants.  In fact, the highlight of our private room dinner at Delicious was for me, the steamed dragon eel with orange peel 陳皮蒸盤龍鱔.   It was the first time I have tried this dish and it was superb!  The eel meat was tender and tasty, not at all fishy or slithery and the black bean sauce lightly flavoured with orange peel enhanced the eel without overpowering the taste.  I loved it!

So then I became curious - what is this thing?  I'd seen live river eels on our trip to New Zealand when we visited one of the conservation parks near Wellington (Mt. Bruce Wildlife Centre).  As you can see below - these were huge!  I never thought then I'd be eating them!

 I found this video on Youtube that shows you how to cook a dragon eel.  It seems that the most difficult part was slicing up the eel into rings and still managing to keep it whole.  The chef in the video only showed the cut up eel but didn't demonstrate how to do it.  He did emphasize that the stomach should not be cut open in order to maintain the taste.  So the tricky part then is cleaning the stomach without opening it up and not cut through the spine so that the eel remains in one piece.  The rest seems really quite easy to do.

Prepare the sauce (basic ingredients of salt, sugar, oyster sauce, black bean sauce, sesame oil, pepper, etc.), roll the eel in it then arrange the eel curled up on the plate and steam.  The chef in the video also said that the best eel came from Australia near the river estuary as that's where there is a mix of freshwater and salt water giving the eel a distinct flavour and texture.  Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDCBK4142ww