Today is eel day! Doyou ushi no hi is the traditional day to eat unagi - eel - in Japan. Doyou is mid-summer; literally, it's the 18 days before autumn "officially" starts (called Risshuu) around August 8th (but it will still be stinking hot until at least September).
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| A supermarket flyer for eel day. Eel is extra expensive this year, due to a shortage of elver. |
Of course, if you like eel grilled over charcoal with a sweet, soy-based sauce, then any day is eel day, but on this mid-summer 'ox' day, eating eel is supposed to give you enough energy to deal with the heat and humidity. But the real origin of "eel day" was a flash of Edo era marketing. Because of the heat, most Edo-ites favoured cold noodles at this time of year, which made business hard for grilled eel restaurants. One restaurant owner consulted Hiraga Gennai, who was a renowned inventor, herbalist, satirical essayist and all-round 'renaissance' man. At the time, people believed that eating foods with the letter 'u' on ushi no hi (day of the ox) would help them endure the heat, (udon noodles and umeboshi are also popular on this day) so Gennai suggested the restaurant make a sign saying something like "today is ushi no hi, so eat unagi". It worked, and other restaurants soon followed suit, and a new tradition was born. To emphasise the "u" in unagi, restaurants make long flags with a stylised eel forming a "u" shape. So why not eat "ushi" or beef? The practice of eating beef is actually pretty recent in Japan. Before the Meiji era, the main sources of animal protein were fish and fowl.
There are so many good eel restaurants in Japan, and the preparation - usually a combination of steaming and grilling and basting with sweet soy sauce - makes them delicious. My image of eels growing up was those creepy snaky things that lived in lakes and nipped at ducks feet - or even nipped you if you went swimming. We didn't eat eel. I had it once, made by a friend's mother, who was Dutch. She chopped it into small pieces, floured it and pan-fried it, served with wedges of lemon. It was great (though a few friends missed out, as they were weirded out by the eel's resemblance to snake)!
Getting into a good eel restaurant on eel day is almost impossible, so I'm going to make it at home for dinner tonight. I'm not preparing it myself of course; driving a nail through the wriggling animal's head and quickly filleting it is not in my cooking repertoire. I leave that to the pros, so I just bought a pre-cooked piece of kabayaki eel, nicely butterflied and sticky with sauce, which I will chop up and mix through rice for dinner. My "unagi gohan" has thinly sliced cucumbers and shredded shiso leaves to cut through the richness of the eel. After all, it's 35 degrees today!
Eel is apparently rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, D and E along with those beneficial fish oils, plus it's lighter than beef or pork, so it's easy to eat, even when you're feeling a bit lethargic. In Tokyo, one of my favourite eel restaurants is Izuei in Ueno. The main restaurant is just across from Shinobazu pond. There's a line right out the door today. They've been preparing eel for about 260 years, so they know what they're doing! Expect to pay around Y3,000 for an unagidon set, with grilled eel on rice, some sashimi, and very delicious eel liver soup. However, I like the rather quieter sister restaurant "Izuei Umigawa Tei", tucked away near Toshogu shrine, inside Ueno park. You can sit outside in the garden or in one of the traditional style rooms (you can choose tatami seating or table and chairs).
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| Izuei Umigawa Tei |
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| This mysterious box contains.... |
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| Lunch! A half eel / half tempura set. |
Eel lovers must visit Narita, the town in Chiba that's more famous for the international airport. The street that leads down to Narita San temple is lined with unagi restaurants, and here, you can see exactly how they are prepared. Chefs sit at tables out the front, grabbing squirming eels from buckets and deftly ... killing and preparing them. Venture inside and you can enjoy the results.
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| Hard at work |
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| Preparing the eel |
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| Grilling is a hot job |
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| "Irasshaimase!" |
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| The finished result - about Y2,000 for a set with pickles and soup. |
After eating, you can stroll the temple grounds to work off your lunch. The gardens of Narita San are really beautiful. I used to fly to Europe via Tokyo just because Japan Airlines had a good flight deal, with an overnight stay at one of the Narita Airport hotels. If only I had known how close by and how lovely Narita town was, I would have taken the free shuttle bus and had an eel feast! If you've got a few hours to kill at the airport, I really recommend a quick trip to Narita.
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| The road down to the temple, lined with eel restaurants. |
Hitsumabushi
I've only been to Nagoya once and at that time, I didn't eat the regional specialty there, hitsumabushi. It's eel, prepared by grilling without steaming, so it tastes a little different and actually, I like it more than Tokyo style unagi, which is sometimes too soft. Hitsumabushi is eel served on rice, but you then divide your bowl into 4. The first quarter, you eat just as is, the next you add sliced negi and wasabi, then the third (my favourite), you make into a kind of ochazuke by adding a little dashi broth. The last is - your choice! While I didn't eat it in Nagoya, there is a branch of a well-known Nagoya eel restaurant called Hitsumabushi Nagoya Bincho (named after the special charcoal used for grilling the eels), in Ginza. It's on the 12th floor of the Maronnier Gate building (between Ginza and Yurakucho). The restaurant website has a little guide to eating hitsumabushi (in Japanese, but with photos) : http://www.hitsumabushi.co.jp/omeshiagari.html
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| Here's a hitsumabushi set. We also ordered some shirayaki (top left), which is cooked without the sauce. You get white soy sauce for dipping. |
The restaurant has views over Yurakucho station. After lunch or dinner, you can check out Tokyu Hands in the same building. So, happy eel day, everyone!
Update:
Here's what we had for dinner. A nice piece of grilled eel, which I chopped up and put on rice with thinly sliced cucumber, negi, nori and shiso, plus a little extra of the sweet grilling sauce and some sansho pepper. It was good!
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