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WELCOME to the SEASONAL JAPANESE KITCHEN
In Japan, the choice of what to serve for a meal, and how to present it, is closely linked to natural phenomenon, and to indigenous folklore. Each month at table, and in the kitchen, has a distinct seasonal identity, complete with its own legends, festivals, motifs, and color schemes associated with it. Trying to decipher the culinary code can be challenging. I know that when I first came to Japan more than three decades ago, I struggled to grasp the meaning of what everyone around me thought was obvious.
To enable those who have not been brought up with Japanese traditions to better understand and appreciate Japanese culinary references to each season, I have been posting essays every few months to this SEASONAL JAPANESE KITCHEN page.
The first essay, posted in December of 2002, highlighted Oshogatsu, the New Year holiday, while the second one focused on Hina Matsuri (Doll's Day) celebrated on March 3. The third essay was devoted to cherry blossom viewing and the obento lunchbox tradition; the fourth installment told a summertime tale of love -- and of slurping thin, white noodles, served on ice, in celebration of Tanabata. The fifth addressed the strong, regional preferences most Japanese grow up with regarding miso, that indispensable seasoning made from fermented soybeans.
The sixth and most recently displayed page of the Seasonal Japanese Kitchen, posted December of 2003 through January of 2004, returned to the subject of Oshogatsu. I invited Jens Hollaender Jensen, one of several people I have been mentoring in the field of food writing, to be a guest essayist for that issue.
With this seventh installment of the Seasonal Japanese Kitchen page, I invite you to enjoy a piece I wrote called the "Eel-Eating Days of Summer."
Tokyo is an exciting place to live, though the heat and persistent humidity can try my enthusiasm in the summertime. When temperatures still hover above 30 Celsius (90 F) at the end of the day, lethargy sets in. Natsubate is what the Japanese call this listless state. And, people here believe the culinary cure for natsubate is eating eels. Indeed, there is a special mid-summer day devoted to eel-eating, called doyo ushi no hi.
Ushi, or "ox," refers to one of 12 animal names, assigned to both years (1997 was the most recent Year of the Ox), as well as days within each year. Many Asian cultures use these animal names to describe cycles of time.
Based on the lunar calendar,"Doyo" refers to the 18-day time period prior to a change of seasons. There is a doyo period before the onset of winter, spring, summer, and autumn. It is this latter one that most Japanese are familiar with, since it is on the ox day of this pre-autumn doyo, that eel-eating is believed to restore stamina that has been sapped by summer heat.
Nutritious Eel
And, eel is a truly nutritious food. Rich in vitamins B1 and A, high in EPA (which lowers blood cholesterol) and DHA (sometimes called "brain food," it is thought to enhance mental acumen), one particular variety of eel, yatsume unagi (literally, "eight eyes," it has seven gill holes dotting both sides of its long body), has been touted for centuries as excellent medicine for night blindness.
Filleting Eel
In Japan, kabayaki -style cooking (split, butterflied and glaze-grilled with sweet soy sauce) is the most popular manner of preparing unagi . Unagi eels are born at sea, then migrate to rivers and swamps. Many parts of the Japanese archipelago are known for their unagi , and regional preferences are evident in the manner of preparation. In the Kansai region, that includes Osaka and Kyoto, eels are slit hara-biraki ("belly-split") style, keeping the meat along the back connected. These fillets are threaded on thin, round, metal skewers, before being dipped in a mirin and soy glaze and grilled. This results in a richly burnished, intensely flavored eel with fairly crispy skin.
In Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto plains area, sei-biraki ("back-splitting") is the filleting method used. This technique keeps the meat connected at the belly. Bamboo skewers are used, and the butterflied eel is first steamed then lightly grilled, before being glazed and grilled some more. This produces a leaner, softer textured eel. Throughout Japan, unagi kabayaki eel is usually sprinkled with aromatic sansho pepper just before eating.
To view this process (Tokyo-style), click here:
http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~t-takao/unaginonedoko/chouri/
Although fillets of glaze-grilled eel are sometimes eaten as a side dish in a larger meal, unagi is most often served on a bed of steamed rice, a dish that dates back to the Muromachi Period (15th and 16th centuries). When ordinary ceramic bowls are used, the dish is known as unadon ; when squarish, lacquered boxes are used to serve the glazed eel on rice it is called unaju , and is considered to be a more elegant. Accordingly, prices are often higher for boxed eel. Frozen, vacuum-sealed pouches of kabayaki eel, many with extra packets of glaze included, are sold at some Asian groceries in America. When you travel to Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, you can even enjoy this delicacy on the train http://www.gakusen.ac.jp/faculty/moriya/ekiben/ekiben/hamamatsu.htm
In addition to unagi, three other varieties of eel are regularly, and eagerly, consumed by the Japanese: anago, hamo, and dojo. Of all of them, anago, a delicate and fairly lean freshwater creature, is the most versatile in the kitchen. Unlike unagi, anago finds its way into batter-fried tempura, gets itself draped across pillows of nigiri-zushi rice, wound about broth-simmered burdock root that is then glaze-broiled (this dish is called yawata maki), and anago can also be placed at the center of rolled omelets.
My mother-in-law taught me to make a terrific pressed sushi dish decorated with soy-simmered mushrooms, tender pickled new shoots of ginger, shreds of sunny omelet, snow peas, and generous chunks of glaze-grilled anago eel. (Already filleted eels are available in local markets, making it far less difficult than it sounds.) Although she passed away a number of years ago, her lively spirit continues to nourish and refresh me in the doldrums of summer each time I make anago-zushi according to her recipe. To view a similar preparation, scroll down to see the sushi being pressed into a rectangular mold and topped with soy-simmered and grilled anago eel. http://sakitama.bne.jp/susi/anago/anago.html
It requires enormous skill to fillet and prepare hamo, a large, thick sea eel with a complex, meaty flavor. Hamo has thousands of fine bones that must be cut with a razor-like blade to make the meat edible. During the summer, especially during the Gion Festival when hamo is in season, Kyoto's traditional restaurants feature it. My favorite hamo dish is a snowy white puff of blanched eel (the myriad cuts made to tenderize the bones cause the meat to fluff up like a peony blossom) topped with a rosy bainiku plum sauce. Hamo-zushi, another popular sea eel dish, is a pressed loaf of tart rice that has been topped with soy-glazed hamo. The loaf is cut into thick slices and served with pink pickled ginger. http://www.lookpage.co.jp/topics/no030710/
In old Edo, and today in modern Tokyo, yet another kind of eel has its fans. Written in syllabary symbols that lead uninformed diners to think they will be eating "doze-u," dojo (the real pronunciation) eels are featured in a dish called Yanagawa nabe. The slender eels are gutted, then simmered in a soy broth with finely shredded gobo (burdock root) in a wide, shallow earthenware pot. Vigorously beaten eggs are poured over the bubbling stew, then barely allowed to set. Some restaurants garnish the casserole with chopped green onions or mitsuba (trefoil) leaves, while other establishments insist that their unadorned version is the most authentic. Both the eels, and burdock root, are especially flavorful in the summer months. Despite the fact that Yanagawa nabe is a summer specialty, it is meant to be eaten piping hot. Many Japanese believe that eating hot foods, and drinking hot beverages, will cool you off during a heat wave! Scroll through these process photos, spread out on two pages: http://www.tsuji.ac.jp/hp/jpn/edo/recipe/dojyounabe/dojyounabe.htm
The first mention of beating the heat by eating eel, was in the Manyoshu, a collection of 8th century poems. The current custom, however, of consuming eel specifically on the "pre-autumn" (doyo) "ox day" (ushi no hi), probably began during the Edo period. One story has it that Gennai Hiraga (1726-1779), a playwright, natural scientist, and Edison-like inventor (in Japan, he is credited with making a hand operated generator and a thermometer), was responsible.
Then, as today, restaurants would ask famous customers to write a few words of praise that the shop could display. Perhaps in jest, Hiraga wrote that eating the restaurant's excellent eel that day -- it just happened to be doyo ushi no hi -- had restored his waning energy. His comment certainly energized the mid summer eel fishing industry!
Today's consumers eagerly look forward to special doyo ushi no hi promotions at department store food halls, supermarkets, and local shops. And this year, 2004, there are two such days: July 21 and August 2. That makes twice as many reasons, and opportunities, to enjoy the eel-eating days of summer.