"Enjoy your meal!"

Eeling 2008

One of my hobbies is catching and smoking eels in the Ngaruroro which is the closest river or awa to my home.  In Holland eels are a delicacy but they are very expensive you would pay $5 dollars for a small eel.  They are almost extinct in Holland because the big population has fished them out, they are even importing eels from New Zealand.  I love to catch the small eels but the Maori people of New Zealand would only eat the big eels and referred to the small eels as boot laces.  You can imagine my delight when I came to New Zealand and found hinakis full of eels.  My children and moko were always excited when I took them eeling with their own line and bait.  I would catch about 20 - 30 eels at one time, the next day I would smoke them in my back yard in the same traditional way my grandfather Jacob van den Berg did - the Urk way.  I would smoke them in a 44 gallon drum, I would use sawdust that smoked profusely, and oak kindle wood that kept the flavour and an old sack on the top soaked with water to trap the smoke.  To please my wife I would make sure she and the neighbours had no washing on their lines, and the wind was blowing the right way to carry the smoke away from the houses.  Finally when the smoked eels came out of the drum, my mouth was watering and I couldn't wait to eat them.  EET SMAKELIJK!  ENJOY YOUR MEAL!

Maori Language:  awa - river, moko - grandchildren, hinaki - eeling pot.