The Japanese love Unagi. There are 900 Unagi restaurants only in Tokyo.
It is like this (Unagi Kabayaki).
The Japanese eat Unagi on a particular day – the Doyo-no-Ushi day (土用の丑) in the Japanese old calendar, which is July 23 in 2022. This day falls around July 20 every year.
Why do the Japanese eat Unagi on this day?
Unagi is full of nutrients. It can be extremely hot around this time. So we eat unagi to get enough nutrition to survive summer heat waves.
Unagi has the following nutrients;
Vitamin A, Vitamin B1 & B2, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Zinc, Calcium, DHA, and EPA
Kabayaki
“Kabayaki” is one of the methods to cook Unagi (the photo above). If you have had unagi before, you might have tasted it already. In a nutshell, Kabayaki is grilled unagi fillets with a sweet & salty sauce. It is so yummy!
The sad thing is the unagi catch has declined a lot in recent years in Japan. It might be due to too much catching or climate change. As the demand for unagi is still very high, unagi has become more expensive. Unagi has been a high-class dish since my childhood but it is more so now.
So today, I want to share an alternative to unagi, which is more affordable but tastes like a real Unagi Kabayaki. It is also very simple, so why don’t you try it?
Mock Unagi Kabayaki
Ingredients: 2 servings
Fish cake (deep-fried fish paste): 100 g
Oil: a little
Ingredients of Kabayaki sauce
Soya sauce: 2 tablespoons
Sugar: 2 tablespoons
Optional: Mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine): 2 tablespoons (photo in the right)
Optional: Japanese Sake: 2 tablespoons
1. If the fish cake is thick, split it into two.
2. Put all the Kabayaki sauce ingredients into a pan and heat it until the sugar dissolves.
3. Pan-fry 1 with oil
4. Add Kabayaki sauce (2), dress fish cake with Kabayaki sauce, and done!
It is so oishii!!
When you miss Unagi Kabayaki and when you can’t go to an Unagi restaurant immediately, try this!!
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