Eel Heads For Stamina
Eel Heads For Stamina
Ever eaten eel? In the US, sea eel (anago) is usually sold at sushi restaurants. Freshwater eel (unagi) you probably need to search for a little harder.It's customary to dine on eel on special days called "Doyo ushi no hi", falling on July 24 and August 5 in 2008. The supermarkets expand their eel selection for eel eating days.
PHOTOS by MW
In the past couple of years in Japan, there's been dramatic price increases on the always expensive unagi at supermarkets.
Mislabeled eel scandals - claiming unagi from China as Japanese-raised and chemical-free - has caused the price spikes. (And just this month, some valuable live eels were stolen from a tank behind a restaurant in Japan.)
I cut back on eel last summer. But anticipating a need for stamina to survive the heat and humidity, I ordered frozen unagi in bulk, discounted on the internet, as I've done a couple times previously.
It's sold as "imperfect", meaning some pieces are broken and are not beautiful enough for supermarkets to offer. Other than the shape, it's perfectly fine unagi. (Unless it's that slightly tainted eel that's been purposely mislabeled by the Japan distributor as originating in Japan and unfortunately you bought it, which I'm pretty sure I've done, but I'll take my chances anyway. )
Did I mention the box of frozen eels come with their frozen heads?
The heads may be attached to the body or broken off the little eel necks. You open the styrofoam box, and there's all these eel stiffs and some eel eyes staring up at you.
I don't eat flattened eel heads. I don't eat eel heads of any shape. Instead, I chop 'em off and offer them to friends, who usually decline. So the heads get thrown away. (Probably the heads provide the most stamina but I don't care.)
If you ever find a frozen, flattened, sauce-covered ready-to-grill eel with it's head attached, go ahead, try a head.
FRIENDS: The One With Unagi
INTERIOR, hallway between the apartments. Ross hides behind a wall on Monica's side. Phoebe and Rachel come up the stairs into the hallway. Ross jumps out.
ROSS: Danger! Danger!
PHOEBE: Ross!
RACHEL: What the hell was that?
ROSS: A lesson in the importance of unagi.
PHOEBE: Ohh, you're a freak!!
Watch the unagi scenes from Friends here.
RELATED
Large, close-up photos of eels.
Eel sold on the internet in Japan.
School of Fish: Eel
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Summer Heat. Eel. Eat?
Summer Heat. Eel. Eat?
Vegete Vegesh Vegetable Mess
Vegete Vegesh Vegetable Mess
New canned beverage in Japan. Mix carrots, spinach, beets, celery, lettuce, oranges, lemons, apples, asparagus, pimiento, cabbage, broccoli, pineapple, eggplant and a banana. Add some liqueur. Goes well with fresh broccoli scallop butter garlic salad and homemade cabbage crackers.
Vegete - the fruits and vegetables:
carrot, spinach, asparagus, pimento, cabbage, beet, celery, lettuce, chinese cabbage, kale, parsley, orange, lemon, manadarin, apple and a few more. (The Japanese characters too difficult for me to read.)
Vegesh - the fruits and vegetables:
carrot, spinach, asparagus, pimento, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, onion, grapefruit, lemon, pineapple, banana, and, yes, more I couldn't read.
Asahi suggests dishes and recipes that go well with these two drinks.
carrot, spinach, asparagus, pimento, cabbage, beet, celery, lettuce, chinese cabbage, kale, parsley, orange, lemon, manadarin, apple and a few more. (The Japanese characters too difficult for me to read.)
Vegesh - the fruits and vegetables:
carrot, spinach, asparagus, pimento, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, onion, grapefruit, lemon, pineapple, banana, and, yes, more I couldn't read.
Asahi suggests dishes and recipes that go well with these two drinks.
Delicious Cold Soy Sauce Treat
Posted by
Mark Weitzman
Delicious Cold Soy Sauce Treat
We use a lot of sauces here in Japan. And no one can do without soy sauce.
And, of course, put it on your ice cream dessert.
New Soy Sauce Syrup for Ice Cream & Shaved Ice
Revolving Raw Fish Dish Fifty
Revolving Raw Fish Dish Fifty
When I need sushi, and fast, I go to a kaitenzushi restaurant, where the food comes to you on a conveyor belt that goes around and around, and customers seated along the way grab the dishes off the conveyor. (I have seen some pieces of sushi go around a few too many times - better to pass on those). But usually the dishes are taken quickly.Now, conveyor belt sushi (also known as Merry-Go-Round sushi) celebrates it's fiftieth anniversary. The first "revolving sushi" restaurant, opened in April 1958 in Fuse, now Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture.
Kaitenzushi can range from a simple circular conveyor, to a system that snakes around a long, looping counter.
Sushi quality varies, but I have a couple favorites that serve the good stuff, both chain restaurants.
Sushiro's kaitenzushi is always busy. The one I go to is next to a 100 Yen store (like a "dollar store") and both are perched over a parking garage. The Sushiro Japanese web page has a slide show of the items on the menu.
MEATBALL CORN
Watch for the delicious meatball sushi - in the Sushiro images slide show, it's above left of the corn sushi.
And this same Sushiro website page has a nice animated description of how fish goes from ocean to table and becomes sushi along the way.
SUSHIRO (source)
More:
Different kinds of sushi going around video, with English subtitiles. (YouTube) And, video from the sushi's point of view. (YouTube)Very close-up images of sushi from Sushiro.
__________________
update: May,6, 2008
>How does sushi in Japan compare to sushi made in the US?At many kaitenzushi restaurants, the rice is formed by a machine, and the toppings quickly added by hand.
The atmosphere makes the difference. At traditional sushi restaurants, I always sit at the counter. The sushi chefs like to talk, and they'll create a special dish for you if you ask. I have two favorites. One place has only 7 seats at the counter and two tables on tatami mats where you sit on the floor.
All about sushi. A new worldwide "sushi screening" for authenticity, from Japan.
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