In Japan there are literally more ways to prepare fish than one can easily imagine. Yakizakana, grilled fish, is one of my all time favorites. Sakana-no-hoshimono, dried fish, is extremely tasty and quick and easy to make. I discovered this one the other day, it is a whole dried herring with it’s own eggs inside.

About Dried Fish for Grilling in Japan
There are many kinds of drying processes used for fish here. ‘Dried’ overnight with just a bit of salt is very common and tasty. Dried with varying degrees of saltiness; sweet, middle and very salty are also common. This herring is dried with some salt and it’s own eggs filling the entrails cavity. This herring wasn’t dried rock hard, but was semi-dried and soft and juicy after cooking.

Yakizakana: Whole Dried Herring – Uncooked

Yakizakana: Whole Dried Herring – Grilled and Served

Terminology
Yakizakana 焼き魚: grilled fish
Komochi 子持ち: literally, ‘has child’ (egg)
Maruboshi 丸干し: whole dried (fish)
Nishin にしん: herring

How Did it Taste?
Salty, but not too salty, just the right amount to contrast well with rice. I used the leftovers for chazuke, tea poured over flavored rice, the chopped herring adding the flavor.

The herring did have a slight ‘pickled’ flavor. Herring eggs are rather chewy and are the source of the unusual flavor, I think. The taste reminded me slightly of spiced sausage and seemed a little bergamoty, but, ever so slightly. There is no spice used in the drying process.

This herring was pretty large, about 20cm.

Unfortunately this kind of fish is not yet widely available in English speaking countries. Drying then grilling small fish is a great way to enjoy eating fish with the bones, and usually the head and guts included. (Miwa did remove the larger bones from this one but the rib bones I ate.) I am sure that an enterprising foodie entrepreneur abroad will popularize this genre of fish preparation someday, hopefully someday pretty soon!

Yakizakana: Whole Dried Herring – Egg Sac Detail

Yakizakana: Whole Dried Herring – detail

Eel liver is even more nutritious than eel flesh, and quite tasty too!

Sprinkled with sansho, grilled eel liver, or unagi kimo kabayaki is an excellent tsumami (snack, hors d’oeuvres) and goes extremely well with beer!

In a more gourmet application, a single eel liver is also served in Kyoto’s delicate and subtly flavored sumashi soup.

Unagi is very nutritious, but unagi kimo is even more so. Eel liver contains lots of vitamins, calcium and iron. Eel liver contains twice as much vitamin A as eel flesh.

We always try to cook a nice meal at home on Saturday night but today we were really tired from the summer heat and work, so at the grocery store we picked up some eel liver for a re-energizing and tasty snack before we started to prepare dinner.

Unagi Kimo

Opps, we forgot the sansho sprinkling for the picture.

Unagi Kimo and Beer

Actually, we split this portion, this would be a lot for just one person.

Unagi, or freshwater eel, is a very popular food in contemporary Japan and there is a dedicated ‘Eel Day’ in mid-summer (this year July 24th) on which most Japanese eat unagi.

This article tells about the development of unagi cuisine and history of the Ushinohi ‘Eel Day’ custom. This article tells about perhaps Kyoto’s most popular unagi restaurant.

Grilling Unagi at Nishiki Market

Unagi Donburi (Eel Bowl)

About Unagi
After Tokugawa Ieyasu succeeded in unifying Japan with his victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, the capital moved from Kyoto to his base, the provincial town of Edo (now called Tokyo, or ‘East Capital’). Transforming Edo into a modern capital of its day required, among other things, extensive land reclamation projects.

Reclamation projects created temporary lakes and ponds in which unagi quickly invaded and flourished. Land reclamation is low paying work so laborers would simply catch unagi ‘on site’ for free. Physical labor is very hard work and unagi which is high in fat gave laborers the required energy.

In the early Edo period (1603-1868) unagi was considered a low class and unsophisticated food due to the fact that it was caught, chopped, roasted and eaten in the field by laborers and also because of its high fat content.

By the late Edo period though this had changed due to various unagi cooking processes being developed in the capital, namely kabayaki. With kabayaki, fish, generally unagi, is boned, put on metal skewers and grilled over charcoal while being dipped in a thick, sweetened soy sauce several times throughout the grilling process.

Today, unagi kabayaki is usually served on top of rice, as donburi, or unagi-don.

Difference Between Kanto and Kansai Style Unagi
Kanto (eastern Japan/Tokyo) style unagi is first steamed, then grilled kabayaki style. The steaming process causes a good deal of the fat to be removed and the unagi flesh to be soft.

Kansai (western Japan/Osaka, Kyoto) style unagi is not steamed, and therefore it is more fatty and chewy.

Another interesting difference is the way the unagi is cleaned. Edo was the seat of the military (samurai) government of Japan and samurai sometimes had to commit ritual suicide (seppeku 切腹) by cutting their lower abdomen open and slowly bleeding to death in excruciating pain. The purveyors of unagi cuisine were sensitive to this as samurai were among their customers, accordingly they split the eel open from the back, not the stomach; Japanese love this kind of thing. Also, usually the head and tail was removed in the process, though not out of deference to samurai.

In Kansai, in the merchant city of Osaka, there was a saying, ‘talk with your stomach open’; be frank, open and honest. So, in Kansai, the eels were split down the stomach. The head and tail usually remained attached.

About the Ushinohi ‘Eel Day’ Custom
In modern-day Japan, most everyone eats unagi on the Doyo-no-ushi-no-hi (土用の丑の日). This year it is on July 24th, but it occurs one day between mid-July and the beginning of August. The simple explanation why is that this is the hottest time of the year and as unagi has lots of nutritional value and fat content, it gives you the umph to not wilt in the blazing, steamy summer heat.

Historical Development – Eat Eel on Ox Day!
The old calendar of Japan utilized the Chinese Zodiac system of a 12 year cycle with each year being named after one of 12 animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar). This is called eto (干支) in Japanese.

Doyo: Between each of the 4 seasons was a period called doyo (土用) that is 18 days in length. The doyo period between summer and autumn (mid-July to early August) is the hottest time of the year and unagi gives strength.

Ushinohi: The days of the week were also named after the same 12 animals and ushi-no-hi literally means ‘ox’s day’, ox is ushi in Japanese. Depending on the year, there could be 1 or 2 ox days during the summer doyo.

In Japan there had long been a superstition that if you ate a food that started with ‘u’, for example, umeboshi, udon, uri, unagi and so on, on ox (ushi) day, as both the day and the food started with ‘u’, you would be healthy.

During the Edo period in Edo an eel shop owner lamented his mid-summer poor sales and sought advice from Gennai Hiraga. Hiraga was a learned man; he was a naturalist, novelist, painter and master of Dutch studies (Western learning), especially science and medicine.

Hiraga said, why don’t you put up a sign that says, ‘Today is Ox (ushi) day, Eat Eel (unagi)!’ The eel shop owner did so and lamented no more and as people learned this was on the advice of Hiraga, other eel shops quickly followed suit and soon it had spread throughout the country and became a custom.

Nishiki Market – Unagi Shop

Nishiki Market – Unagi Shop

This is eel wrapped around gobo root stips and grilled.

Unagi Shop – Sold Out!

This is a very popular unagi store in Nishiki Market and it looks like they could not quite meet demand.

Unagi Shop – Sold Out!

It looks like they sold a lot of eel today!

Grilled Unagi Kimo (liver)

The ‘U’ in Unagi on Shop Sign

うなぎ is unagi, notice on the left how the う (u) is eel-shaped.

Nishiki Market – Grilling Eel

The row in the foreground hasn’t been dipped in sauce yet, so it is still very light in color.

Nishiki Market – Grilling Eel

The tub behind the dude is full of sauce and he dunks them in there several time.

Grilled Eel for Chazuke

Grilled and simmered in shoyu and sansho, small chunks are placed atop rice and eaten as is, or tea is poured over it to make chazuke. At 2,200 yen this is a good deal! Chazuke Unagi is very, very delicious. It is one of Peko’s all-time fav quick and tasty meals.

Nishiki Market – Eel Sushi for Sake

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Stand

These eel are from Lake Biwa, just over the mountain from Kyoto.

Eel Stand Offerings – Unagi Bento

Eel Stand Offerings – Unagi Tamago Dashimaki

This is a Japanese style omelet (tamago dashimaki) with unagi inside.

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Store

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Stand Offerings

Eel Store Offerings – Wild Grilled Eel

The grilled unagi on the right cost 12,000 yen, about $120 USD!!

Daimaru Department Store – Popular Eel Store

The line is at least 20 people long!

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Store Offerings

This eel is 8,400 yen, about $85 USD!

Convenience Store Poster

Eel Day promotional poster

Convenience Store Unagi Bento

Kaneyo is a long-loved Kyoto eel joint thoroughly from another time and the grilled eel dishes are excellent.

Eating Out on Eel Day
On Eel Day we visited Kaneyo, one of the most famous unagi restaurants in all of Kyoto. Kaneyo is centrally located near Sanjo-Kawaramachi (intersection/neighborhood) and the Shinkyogoku Shopping Arcade.

To learn more about the history and development of ‘Eel Day’, please see this article.

Kaneyo Storefront and Takeout Eel Day Bento For Sale

The dude on the right is selling unaju (unagi bento) on Eel Day. On the left, in the window is where the unagi are grilled.
About Kaneyo
Kaneyo opened in the Taisho period and has been in business for more than 100 years now. The Taisho period was a very interesting time for Japan because the country had technologically modernized however, culturally it was still purely Japanese (now it is not).

Walking into Kaneyo is to step back in time. The atmosphere, the staff, the service, the building, everything is from a different time. Kaneyo’s traditional sense is not at all sophisticated.

Everything is out of kilter about the place. Walking up the steps to the second floor is an unnerving experience. The second floor space itself is seriously warped with age. If you were to set a ball on the floor, it would roll away, and in which direction it may be difficult to foresee. The first floor has a terrazzo floor and columns that do not look just handmade, but hand-hewn! There is one large wooden round table on the first floor that is warped and worn and polished with what I imagined to be decades of elbows and eel grease. Bottled beer is kept in a tub of ice water rather than a refrigerator.

I had heard about Kaneyo for years, walked and biked past it many times, but I had never been inside. When Paku lead me in the only think that I could think was, ‘eel joint’ (as opposed to eel restaurant).

As unagi cannot yet be completely farm raised, unagi is not cheap. We paid 1,600 yen each for our eel bowls. The servings are not especially large, either. They do offer a lunch time meal for 950 yen. This price range is on par with other unagi restaurants though.

I had unagidon (unagi donburi) and Paku had unagi kinshi which unagidon with a big square omelet on top. The presentation is dramatic and while the unagi is excellent, we thought that the egg was rather tasteless. In Kyoto, egg cooked in this way should have lots of dashi in it for flavor.

Kaneyo cooks its eel over charcoal, which can be seen in the front window.

While this joint is a bit run down, the service gruff (but fairly friendly), there are more elegant places for unagi in Kyoto but there is a definite charm about Kaneyo. That blue-collar Taisho Japan is something that is surely not long for the world. If you are in Kyoto and up for unagi you probably want to put Kaneyo on your itinerary.

Unagi Donburi

A lacquered bowl filled with a modest portion of rice is topped with grilled unagi. This goes extremely well with beer. The little bamboo vessel on the rice holds sansho which is sprinkled on the donburi. By the way, the tsukemono (on the right) is terrible.

Unagi Donburi – detail

Notice the sansho sprinkled on the unagi.

Unagi Kinshi Don

This is a great dish, it arrives at your table just like this.

Unagi Kinshi Don – detail

Again, while very beautiful, the egg was less than delicious.

Unagi Kinshi Don – detail

The rice and unagi sort of steams under the hot, wet egg covering.

Kaneyo Interior

There is a waterfall outside in the little garden too.

Kaneyo Interior

The weirdly warped table and over-abundant staff.

Kaneyo Storefront

Kaneyo Storefront

Kaneyo Storefront – detail

We didn’t snap any piks of the second floor dining space, but if you look closely you can see how the columns and beams are not quite square with the world.

English:
English website: no
English menu: no
Location and Access: Approximately 10 minutes walk from Kawaramachi Station (Hankyu Railway), Sanjo Station (both Keian Railway and Subway Tozai Line)
Address: Kyoto-shi Nakagyo-ku Shinkyogoku Rokkaku (京都市中京区新京極六角)
Telephone: 075-221-0669
www.jin.ne.jp/kaneyo (Japanese language only)
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Quick and simple, a 10 minute wonder, fresh sanma is delectable.

One of the best preparations of fish in Japanese cuisine is ‘shio yaki.’ shio means salt and yaki means grilled. Fish in Japan is something that is often eaten raw, so you can be sure that generally all fish in Japan is very fresh.

So, just a shake of salt and then grilled creates a delicacy that accentuates the fundamental quality of the fish itself. This is usually the approach in Japanese cuisine; accentuate the main event, not create a new flavor with spices, and etc.

This is another in our quick and simple posts on home cooking in Kyoto. Also, in the recent post on aozakana, we mention sanma, but didn’t have a good photo of this beautiful and distinctive fish.

Here, sanma is grilled, whole with the head and guts intact.

Sanma-no-shioyaki is served with grated daikon radish and often a wedge or two of sudachi, a distinctive Japanese citrus that really brings out and accentuates many flavors in Japanese cuisine.

After being served, a dash of shoyu is usually splashed on the grated daikon and sudachi is squeezed over the fish.

The meat of the sanma is separated from the bones and innards a bite-sized portion at a time. A bit grated daikon is then picked up with the chopsticks, placed atop the fish, then picked up and placed in the mouth. Of course, this can all be done with a fork and knife too.

Some Japanese actually eat the guts, but they should definitely be fully cooked. The guts are surely full of nutrition, but they are very bitter and would probably not be to the liking of most Westerners.

That’s it! Back home, on the West Coast of the US, we often were able to get fresh sanma. Try this dish out! If you can’t get sudachi, fresh lime and lemon juice, half and half, will do quite nicely too.

A note about grilling at home in Japan. Gas ranges in Japan always have a grill the cooks with an open flame from the top. Restaurants such as izakaya often cook many of their grilled dishes over charcoal. So, cooking on a western style barbecue will produce an authentic rendition of this dish. A broiler oven will also do just fine.

Sanma (秋刀魚) 秋 autumn, 刀 sword, 魚 fish

sudachi adds such an elegant twist to so many Japanese dishes

all the fixins

sanma cooking in the ubiquitous household fish grill

sanma served

sanma-no-shioyaki – how to eat

sanma-no-shioyaki – how to eat

Torito signature dish and Torito storefront ‘sign’

Yakitori (Japanese grilled chicken) is one of Japan’s distinctive meals, it provides a vast and imaginative variety of flavors and textures. What’s more, yakitori is cooked! So, if you are not into the raw delicacies of Japan, with yakitori you can experience something both new and exotic — and safe!

Yakitori restaurants often serve toritsukuri (chicken sashimi), which you might want to steer well clear of, and lots of namatamago (raw egg). Toritsukuri often includes both meat as well as innards such as gizzard, heart and liver. Raw chicken liver in Japan is a particular delicacy. Chicken to be eaten raw is butchered and handled in a way very different than that to be cooked. (We have never experienced any ill effects from eating toritsukuri.) But rest assured, yaki means grilled and tori means chicken, so you are in safe territory with yakitori.

Japanese do eat most every part of the bird, literally from the neck to the tail and from the skin to the innards.

Chicken is cut into bite sized pieces, placed on a bamboo skewer and grilled. It is flavored with various tare, shoyu and Japanese mustard concoctions, salt and etc. It is often served, garnished with lemon (self squeeze), or wrapped in shiso leaf with pickled plum paste on top. Between the chicken pieces are often slices of leek, onion and even hard boiled quail egg. Variations are nearly endless.

Typically, yakitori conjures images of older men, drinking and smoking, talking loud and boisterously in an old, dark, smoke filled place with the staff sweating profusely over the charcoal grill. These restaurants are fairly rare in Kyoto. They are common in nearby Osaka, especially near train stations catering to commuters on their way home from work.

Yakitori restaurants often advertise on their storefront what kind of charcoal they use, both the wood species and the region of production.

Yakitori is another popular Japanese cuisine that is not very ‘Kyoto.’ Torito, is quite unique among yakitori restaurants and offers yet another expression of the sophistication of Kyoto.

Torito, is out of a newer mold. The founder and owner is a young man, he still looks to be in his 20′s. Additionally, Torito is located very close to Kyoto University and Kyoto University Hospital, so many patrons are young and many are female (professional women, in their 20s and 30s in Japan, always know where to eat out). Torito is said to be very popular among nurses at Kyoto University Hospital. Torito opened more than 5 years ago and is still very, very popular.

Torito has an excellent drink menu as well. It has a great selection of sake, shoshu, umeshu and also an excellent wine list.

The atmosphere is casual, the interior is a funky combination of black walls hand painted with white chickens and beautiful Japanese wood tables, chairs and counter.

Torito serves a number of raw items and uses raw egg in several dishes. The Torito special tsukune (tsukune is a kind of meatball) is a signature dish and if you are OK with raw egg, a must try. The Torito salad, grilled chicken and veggies wrapped like a spring roll, is also a winner. Another original is a whole grilled Hokkaido potato with butter and mentaiko (cod eggs and a little chili pepper) and draped with cheese on top. The chicken wings, delicately spiced with I don’t know what, is amazing, another must try.

From the grill, in addition to various chicken parts, there are usually lots of veggies to choose from as well as scallops and pork.

There are a number of rice dishes, donburi (丼) and ochazuke (茶漬け) that safe and filling.

Toritsukuri (chicken sashimi)
Heart and liver is served on a bed of daikon and shiso leaf. The wasabi and sprouts are added to the soy sauce (bottom right), same as for raw fish. On the bottom left is sesame oil with salt. This mixture is especially tasty with the raw liver. Toritsukuri goes very well with beer.

Pickled jellyfish and garlic, toritsukuri, grilled liver

Jellyfish and garlic cloves are pickled in umeboshi paste and red shiso.
This also goes great with beer. The garlic doesn’t leave you with garlic breath.

Grilled chicken cartilage
Torito also has a dish that is deep-fried chicken cartilage, both are excellent with lemon — and beer!

Torito Salad

Torito Special Tsukune
A ground chicken and scallion based meatball like yakitori grilled on a skewer.

Torito Special Tsukune
The egg yolk quality test; impale it with a toothpick, if the tooth pick stands straight up and the yolk doesn’t loose it’s shape, you know you’ve got the best!

Torito Special Tsukune
Break the egg yolk and swirl the tsukune around in it, and eat. This is a real treat!

Kamonasu and Tofu
Kyoto eggplant and tofu slightly spicy with a lot of cilantro

Torito’s grilled chicken wings

Gyunyu Shochu (milk shochu)
This one of a kind shochu is made with rice and fermented with milk lactates. It is exceptionally smooth and people that don’t like shochu like this one.

Torito ‘sign’

Torito facade
About 10 paces east of Keihan Marutamachi Station

Prices are average for a nice dinner and drinks in Kyoto, say about 3,500 – 4,000 yen per person.

English:
No English menu
Staff doesn’t seem to speak English
(don’t let this daunt you, lots of tourists visit Torito and everyone seems to enjoy themselves)

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