Unagi

A kabayaki-don (una-don), Japanese unagi cuisine

Unagi (うなぎ) is the Japanese word for freshwater eel, especially the Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica. Unagi is a common ingredient in Japanese cooking. It is not to be confused with saltwater eel, which is known as anago in Japanese.

In Japanese cuisine

Unagi is served as part of unadon (sometimes spelled unagidon, especially in menus in Japanese restaurants in Western countries), a donburi dish with sliced eel served on a bed of rice. A kind of sweet biscuit called unagi pie made with powdered unagi also exists.^[1] Unagi is high in protein, vitamin A, and calcium.

Specialist unagi restaurants are common in Japan, and commonly have signs showing the word unagi with hiragana う (transliterated u), which is the first letter of the word unagi. Lake Hamana in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka prefecture is considered to be the home of the highest quality unagi; as a result, the lake is surrounded by many small restaurants specializing in various unagi dishes. Unagi is often eaten during the hot summers in Japan. There is even a special day for eating unagi, the midsummer day of the Ox (doyo no ushi no hi).^[2][3]

Unakyu is a common expression used for sushi containing eel & cucumber. Due to the health hazards of eating raw freshwater fish, eels are always cooked, and in Japanese food, are always served with tare sauce.

Sustainability

Seafood Watch, a sustainable seafood advisory list, recommends that consumers avoid eating unagi due to significant pressures on worldwide freshwater eel populations. All three eel species used as unagi have seen their population sizes greatly reduced in the past half century. For example, catches of the European Eel have declined about 80% since the 1960s. Although about 90% of freshwater eel consumed in the U.S. are farm-raised, they are not bred in captivity. Instead, young eels are collected from the wild and then raised in various enclosures. In addition to wild eel populations being reduced by this process, eels are often farmed in open net pens which allow parasites, waste products, and diseases to flow directly back into wild eel habitat, further threatening wild populations. Freshwater eels are carnivores and as such are fed other wild-caught fish, adding an additional element of unsustainability to current eel farming practices.^[4]

References

v t e Seafood Fish Fish (food) Anchovy Billfish Carp Catfish Cod Eel Flatfish Flounder Herring Mackerel Salmon Sardine Shark Sturgeon Tilapia Trout Tuna Whitebait Shellfish Abalone Cockles Crab meat Crayfish Geoduck Krill Lobster Mussels Oysters Scallops Shrimp Sea urchins Crustaceans Molluscs Other seafood Edible seaweed Jellyfish Marine mammals Octopus Sea cucumber Squid Whale meat Sea vegetables Algae List of seafoods more... Processed seafood Caviar Dried fish Canned fish Cod liver oil Cured fish Fermented fish Fish fillet Fish head Fish oil Fish sauce Fish paste Fish steak Fish stock Lutefisk Salted fish Shark liver oil Shrimp paste Smoked fish Stockfish Surimi Roe more... Seafood dishes Bisque Chowder Fish and chips Fish pie Fish soup Fried fish Raw fish Seafood boil Shark fin soup Sushi more... Health hazards Ciguatera Fish diseases and parasites Mercury in fish Metagonimiasis Scombroid food poisoning Seafood allergy Shellfish poisoning Advisory services Seafood mislabelling Sustainable seafood Sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification Animal welfare Declawing of crabs Eating live seafood Eating live animals Eyestalk ablation Pain in fish Pain in crustaceans Shark finning Related topics Fish preservation Fish processing Gathering seafood by hand History of seafood History of sushi Salmon cannery Umami