A BRITISH SEAFOOD PIE, MADE IN MICHIGAN?

In George Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying," there is a picturesque visit to a street market.

From the side-street just ahead, a shade of white light cut through the mist, and there was a bellowing of street hawkers. It was Luton Road, where they have the open-air market two evenings a week. Gordon turned to his left, into the market. He often came this way. The street was so crowded that you could only with difficulty thread your way down the cabbage-littered alley between the stalls. In the glare of hanging electric bulbs, the stuff on the stalls glowed with fine lurid colours--hacked, crimson chunks of meat, piles of oranges and green and white broccoli, stiff, glassy-eyed rabbits, live eels looping in enamel troughs, plucked fowls hanging in rows, sticking out their naked breasts like guardsmen naked on parade. Gordon's spirits revived a little. He liked the noise, the bustle, the vitality. Whenever you see a street-market you know there's hope for England yet.

Those eel, though?  Probably not fit for a King.

An odd tradition – sea lamprey pie – linking the Great Lakes to Great Britain’s Royals and is expected to continue with the crowning of King Charles III.

Lampreys are considered an undesirable invasive species in the Great Lakes. They devastate native fish by latching onto them with a sucker-like mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Great Lakes state, provincial and federal governments spend millions of dollars to control them.

But baking them into a pie is a longtime tradition in the United Kingdom.

Queen Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8 after reigning 70 years, was served the eel-like sea lamprey in 2002 to celebrate her Golden Jubilee, or 50th anniversary of being on the throne.

That's not the species of eel on offer along Luton Road.

The lamprey pie is a tradition in the U.K., spanning hundreds of years. Serving it was discontinued except for coronations in 1836, due to its high cost, according to “What’s Cooking America,” a website that documents food history.

The lamprey is baked while coated in syrup, along with some wine and spices. It is then spooned out and served on sliced white bread.

It's possible to catch a few in the Great Lakes, and prepare them for shipment overseas.

“This all started in the Middle Ages when the city of Gloucester in England had to pay homage to the reigning monarch, and the city’s way of doing that was to present a pie made of lamprey,” which at that time were considered a delicacy and prized by the upper class, [Michigan Fishery Commission functionary Marc Gaden] said. The gift quickly became the city’s traditional way of showing respect to the monarchy.

Fast forward to 2002: Gaden got a call from Gloucester. Lampreys had disappeared from England, apparently because virtually every freshwater stream had a dam near its mouth, preventing lamprey from entering to spawn, and the creatures are unable to reproduce in deep water, according to the website of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

Don't expect lakeside restaurants in the States or Canada to offer Coronation Pie this winter, though: because mercury accumulates in fish fat, and lampreys latch on to fish fat, the catch being sent to Gloucester (this one is inland: no fish-to-Gloucester jokes, please) has to be tested first to be below legal limits for mercury concentration.