Once July arrives, it's time to eat eel rice! Don't miss these 10 eel dishes if you're going to Japan!

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In the summer of every year, one of Japan's specialties becomes a must-eat.

In Japan, it has always been a custom to eat eel on the day of "Touyoshi Ushi" (around July 25th), and every year in late July, the signboards of "Touyoshi Ushi Day" are put up on the streets, and even the Yoshinoya, which specializes in beef and rice, introduces a special menu of eel over rice. --Even Yoshinoya, which specializes in beef and rice, offers a special menu of unagi rice.

Even if you have never been to Japan, you should have heard of eel rice.

In various Japanese movies, TV dramas and anime, as long as you hear the word eel, it is like a "delicacy on earth". It is synonymous with "deliciousness on earth" and seems to cure all kinds of negative emotions every time it appears on the screen.

The earliest record of eating unagi on rice in summer in Japan dates back to the Nara period in the Manyoshu, which states that eating unagi is effective in preventing summer lethargy and relieving fatigue, among other things.

In fact, eel is generally leaner in summer and fatter in fall and winter. Summer is not the best season to eat eel, but it is also because of its leanness that it is less fatty in summer. Crispy eel with a sweet and rich sauce is a great way to eat, and the satisfaction of carbohydrates + protein + fat is a great rejuvenator. (No wonder Genta loves it so much~)

For an orthodox Japanese eel rice, you must use river eel, which has fluffy but not flaky meat and a soft and tender texture. Another is the sea eel, compared with the river eel, sea eel thorns, the whole body is also densely covered with small Y-shaped thorns, the meat is not as fat as the river eel, so the overall price of the sea eel than the river eel plate a lot.

As for the method of grilling, it can be roughly categorized into two schools: Kansai and Kanto.

In the Kanto school, eel is grilled in white, then steamed, and then grilled again after steaming. Unagi grilled in this way has a soft and rich flavor.

The Kansai school is more direct, the eel belly cut and dissected and killed with an iron stick skewered, directly on the fire to open the grill, so that the grilled eel texture is more flexible, while the skin is crispy.

You can think about what kind of eel you eat.

Of course, the way we eat unagi nowadays is basically "kamabayaki".

It means that you grill the eel while brushing the sauce into the eel meat. A good eel rice has very little sauce on the surface, but the flavor is not bland at all. If it's not good enough, there's a big pile of sauce on the surface.

In Japan, at a restaurant that serves eel rice, there are usually two choices, "eel-don" and "eel-heavy".

Unagi weight is the kind that comes inside a lacquered box, which looks very high class, and was actually first made to be convenient for take-out, and then the boxes got more and more deluxe and expensive.

Unagi donburi is that covered rice style where the eel is overall smaller and not as chunky, so it doesn't have that big satisfying bite.

Of course, it doesn't mean that unagi is necessarily better than eel donburi, but it varies from person to person.

🤗 Tokyo Unagi Cuisine

01 Mejiro Zenroha Address：B1F 3-3-1 Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo

Mejiro Zorome is an eel restaurant in Tokyo known for its fresh eel and unique cooking techniques. The signature unagi rice is tender and richly flavored with a special sauce. The restaurant's elegant ambience and attentive service make it an excellent choice for unagi cuisine.

02 Shiyome Takahashiya Address：4-12-1 4F Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Located in the Kabuki-za neighborhood. Enjoy Kanto-style eel cut, steamed and grilled to fluffy perfection in a modern Japanese interior.

03 stone bridge Address: 2-4-29 Suido, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Located in an old house next to the Kanda River, this is a traditional family restaurant run by a couple. The eel is killed daily, steamed for an hour, and then grilled with unagi sauce in a kamaboko grill. The tableware is very expensive and the Wajima lacquer ware used to serve the eel rice is very special.

04 Eel Wadabe Address: 1-9-14 Koishikawa, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

We recommend the "Yama Eel Box Lunch", named after the nearby Genkaku-ji Temple, which is also nicknamed "Konjac Yama". You can enjoy both grilled eel with and without sauce in the same dish.

05 Nodawan Asabu Izakura Honten Address: 1-5-4 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Kanjiro Kanemoto, who runs Nodawan, is said to make the best unagi rice in Japan, and is recognized as the "God of Unagi".

In addition to classic eel dishes, the restaurant also offers creative dishes, such as eel with caviar, which will make anyone who eats eel rice feel happy...

🤗 Osaka Eel Cuisine

01 Yoshitora Address: 1-6-6 Bogo-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka City

Osaka's oldest unagi restaurant is often ranked as one of the best unagi restaurants in Osaka by many people.

Opened in 1922, "Yoshitora" is a century-old restaurant. Adopting the Edo method of burning, from the back of the eel to open, white burned and steamed once to force out the oil, and finally baked with the sauce, Yoshitora's eel roasted eel portion thick, eel roasted outside the charred tender taste absolutely absolutely son, their home and usually eat sweet Kamaboko burns is not quite the same as a salty mouth.

Remember to make reservations in advance when you go to their house, and don't go on the weekends, the 100 year old store is taking a break.

02 Eel House Address: 4-5-22 Nishinakajima, Yodogawa-ku, Osaka City

Juxtaposed with the existence of the above Yoshitora, is also many people's heart of Osaka unagi one brother, Michelin recommended restaurant, unagi rice 100 famous restaurants.

Unagi is very tasty, basically to the extent that the outside is burnt and the inside is tender and melts in your mouth. But this store is super small, basically can only receive 10 people, and also need to make a reservation, as if it can not be online appointment.

03 Honka Shibata Address: 2-5-2, Takaribashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka City

Honkai Shibatou is a famous eel and rice restaurant that has been in business for 300 years and has been passed down for 15 generations.

"Shibatou produces typical Kansai-style kabayaki eel, which is grilled only once to give it a crispy and fluffy texture. In addition, Shibato-ryu unagi is steamed in a unique way by placing two layers of kabayaki unagi and two layers of rice between each other, which enhances the bond between the unagi and the rice. Shibato-ryu unagi rice is another type of unagi that is cut into several pieces and can be served with seasonings or made into kamaboko (unagi tea-stained rice), making it one of the more varied restaurants.

The restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays, but reservations can be made by phone.

04 Igaki Address: 1-6-5 Tanimachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka City

Seasoned eel in the Kansai style, the skin of each piece of eel is grilled to a charred finish, and paired with a salty-sweet sauce that soaks into the rice, the oily aroma of the eel skin and the melt-in-your-mouth fish, it's really a bite into the soul.

05 Unagiwan Address：12F, Hankyu Department Store, Osaka City

It's right inside the Hankyu shopping mall, so you can go straight there after shopping, and the lineups are much better than those of the big guys above. They have a lot of varieties, as well as sukiyaki (similar to shirakuchi) and eel three ways.

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We eat eel rice when you will see some written "pine, bamboo, plum" or "on, special on, extremely on" this kind of suffix, basically represents the grade of eel rice, anyway, remember one thing, the more expensive price eel is the bigger, the portion is also the larger.

When you eat, try to make do with what you have, a lot of people don't watch TV inside the feeling of eel rice is very fragrant, but they eat is probably not used to eating.

Preparing to eat eel rice friends, you can refer to the Tabelog ratings to, Japanese people generally do not play high scores, basically 3.5 points or more of the restaurant is worth going to, the probability of stepping on the mine is very small ~!