Yesterday was Japan’s eel-eating day, a bit like Korea’s boknal. Just as we eat samgyetang on boknal, it’s meant to be a day to eat eel in summer and get your strength back, but really it’s nothing more than a marketing trick by the eel trade. Eel never used to sell well in summer – because it isn’t fatty then, so it doesn’t taste good – and the story goes that the eel shops, racking their brains over how to boost sales, asked a famous eccentric named Hiraga Gennai for an idea. The guy was really clever: he spread the folk belief that on the Day of the Ox (ushi) you have to eat something starting with the sound “u”. Anyway, thanks to him, every year crowds of people end up lining up to eat unagi at the very worst time of year for it, so when it comes to 200-year-running cons on an entire nation, Japan and Korea don’t seem all that different.
Unagi rice box with two layers of eel
There’s another layer of eel tucked in the middle of the rice. I think it’s the best way to eat unagi ^_^ Maybe because it’s summer, there was hardly any fat on it, so it wasn’t heavy – but let’s be honest, that richness is the whole point of unagi. When I came here last spring I ordered the same thing, and back then it was so rich that I enjoyed it at first but got sick of it halfway through and struggled to finish. This time there was none of that right to the last bite, but it still tasted really lacking.
Suimono
A clear soup made with eel liver. Light and nice. One of the decorative flowers has fallen off, see?
I once ate at the very best unagi place, but that was in summer too, so it was just so-so for the price. The cooking itself was flawless, but summer really isn’t the season. From now on I’ll have to spread the truth about summer unagi far and wide so nobody else gets burned like this.
Also, I opened a new blog for music and random chatter.
The address is here.
I’m not sure what will come of it. It has no special features at all – it’s really nothing much, and I don’t even know if I’ll update it properly – but I didn’t want to give up the music recommendations I’ve been doing for so long, so I’m going to keep them going this way.
I’m going to think a bit more about what to do with this blog, because TextCube is just so lousy. I’m considering moving to textyle, but it isn’t even out as an official release yet, so I’ll wait and see a little longer. I was busy for a while and didn’t notice, but the internet seems to be getting more and more fun. These days I’m practically an addict… Well, you’ve got to enjoy things while you can.