Melbourne

I reckon it tastes roughly halfway between snake and bacon. It's the fish red meat. I really like it. Smoked eel is scrumptious - can get it at Vic market sometimes - which doesn't need cooking. Just flake it into a salad or onto rice or pasta with your choice of sauce. Fresh eel cooked in fat has a crispy skin, cooked in water it's more gelatinous if you like it like that. Either way it goes very well with strong flavours of spice and sauce. Tinned eel is more like the cooked in water version. One of my absolute favorite dishes is crumbed and fried sections of eel on the bone, served with a sharp vinaigrette dipping sauce.
Most of the eel sold in Victoria comes from the lakes in the western district and has been eaten since forever by everybody. Which lakes are now full of water again, so I reckon there will be local eel on sale over the summer this year and next. Tinned eel should be available from asian grocers.
Let me know if you find some fresh eel on sale, and I can give you some hints on preparing it anglo style if that's your jam. There are some traps for the unwary.
Baby eels are called elvers, and any whitebait recipie can be used to turn them into food. And I recommend that you do so - they are seriously yum. Crunchy and savory and full of flavor.