"Eels used to be a staple of this city's [London's] diet. Back in the Victorian era, they were swimming so plentifully in the Thames that they became a poor man's hearty meal. Food stalls hawking eel pies thrived * * * But the river's eel population has collapsed in recent years, partly because of the proliferation of structures built to prevent flooding. That has challenged pie makers' efforts to keep the fish affordable. 'Now they're ridiculously expensive,' said Geoff Poole, a co-owner of three M Manze shops, in an interview. * * * Now he gets eels from the Netherlands and Ireland. Filling a whole pie with eel would be too costly, so he serves eels jellied or stewed, and puts beef in his pies.
"M Manze is the oldest of the remaining eel houses, with roots going back to Mr Poole's grandfather, an Italian named Michele Manze [see Note (a)], who immigrated to Britain as a child in 1878 and opened his first shop in 1902. * * * A round blue sign out front proclaimed M Manze's 'The Oldest Surviving Eel & Pie Shop in London.'
In that restaurant: "all of the locals were eating beef pies [than jellied or stewed eels; the former is eels 'encased in a clear gelatin'; there is no eel pie, because it would be too expensive] * * * Mr Poole later explained that only about a tenth of his customers actually eat eels"
Note:
(a)
(i) The southern English surname Poole is "variant spelling of Pool." The latter means "someone who lived near a pool or pond."
(ii) male given name:
English: Michael; French Michel; Italian: Michele https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele
(pronunciation: ˈmikɛle)
(b) "Behind a high counter, food rose up from the kitchen by dumbwaiter: long trays of beef pies and metal pails piled high with mashed potatoes."
(i) dumbwaiter (n): "a small elevator used for conveying food and dishes from one story of a building to another" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dumbwaiter
(ii) "A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator or lift intended to carry objects rather than people." en.wikipedia.org for "dumbwaiter"
(iii) Go to images.google.com and see for yourself.
(c) "A guy sporting a Tottenham Hotspur jersey was at one table"
(d) "Casey's [the older son Casey ordered stewed eels] was just a mound of eels. * * * 'All of these bones,' Casey said, casting a feral glance toward his brother [younger brother Eli ordered a beef pie]."
(i) An eel has a skull and a backbone; it does not have ribs.
(ii) feral (adj; etymology) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feral
(iii) When Casey said to Eli, "All of these bones," Case was sarcastic -- because a beef pie had no bone.
(e) A photo caption states, "Pie, mash and liquor at M Manze. Credit Andy Haslam for The New York Times"
pie and mash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_and_mash
(section 2 Composition: a beef pie, mashed potato and "a type of parsley sauce to be present. This is commonly called eel liquor sauce or simply liquor (although it is non-alcoholic)" )
(f) What people in London eat is European eel.
(i) eel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel
(section 5 Commercial species: American eel, European eel, Japanese eel and another)
(ii) A salmon spawn in a freshwater river, migrate to ocean and returns to spawn and die. An eel is opposite to a salmon in terms of life cycle. For example, European eel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_eel
(section 2 Life history)
(iii) Charles Q Choi, Eels Consume Their Own Bones to Survive Migration. Live Science, Oct 19, 2016. https://www.livescience.com/5653 ... vive-migration.html
But this observation has no bearing with eels Londoners eat, because they were young eels, BEFORE their migration to Sargasso Sea to spawn and die there.