Slimy and prehistoric? I'll have it cooked in blood

By Ruben Bicho

MONTEMOR-O-VELHO, PORTUGAL (Reuters Life!) - They're slimy, pre-historic and considered a pest in North America -- meet sea lampreys, a creature that has Portuguese food lovers salivating this time of year.

These freaks of nature that are neither fish, worm nor eel have survived for 360 million years, have long snake-like bodies and a sucker mouth adorned with sharp teeth worthy of any Hollywood sci-fi movie. Think Alien.

Many of the parasites feed by sucking the blood of fish, attaching to their prey with a suction disk and teeth. The Portuguese prefer to eat them cooked in their own blood.

At this time of year, for some communities on Portugal's northern rivers, lampreys are big business. They also make their way onto menus at top-notch Lisbon restaurants.

Between January and April, when sea lampreys move up river from the sea to spawn, fishermen head to the northern rivers while cities stage festivals dedicated solely to the creature.

In the small village of Montemor-o-Velho, with a population of about 3,000, the annual lamprey festival draws 30,000 visitors over two weekends. Around 2,500 lampreys are cooked and served.

"We have a big area of influence, we get visitors from all over the place. Yesterday I met people who traveled more than 400 km (249 miles) from the south of the country," said Luis Leal, Mayor of Montemor-o-Velho.

But the gastronomic feasts may be tempered this year by the falling lamprey population, which has been affected by the building of dams and pollution. The National Institute of Conservation classifies the species as "vulnerable", estimating there were only 100,000 lampreys in Portuguese rivers in 2006.