Thursday, July 09, 2009

Did You Eat Eel Yet?

Yesterday, I took a lunch in "Yoshinoya".
Yoshinoya is the most famous "GYU-DON" restaurant chain in Japan.
What's about gyu-don?
"Gyu" means beef. And "don" is short for "donburi" that is a Japanese style bawl.
Gyu-don is a dish that boiled many slices of beef with flavored broth on rice in donburi.



But my target was not gyu-don, that was "UNA-DON"!
"Una" is short for "unagi". And Unagi means eel. In japan, eels are usually ate as "KABAYAKI".
Kabayaki is a dish that broiled eels with secret sauce. That sauce called "TARE". Tare has very complex taste; sweet, a little bitter and a just little pungent.
Una-don, as well as gyu-don, is a dish that broiled some pieces of kabayaki on rice with tare n donburi.
 


By the way, why did I eat unadon?
In Japan, there is a custom that eat the eel in July. We say it "DOYOU NO USHI NO HI".
It is the old wisdom that eating eels as high nourishing foodstuff makes us healthy before summer.

Let's eat una-don, and keep your health!


「もう、うなぎは食べましたか?」

昨日、“吉野家”でお昼ご飯を食べた。
吉野家は日本で一番有名な牛丼のチェーン店だ。
牛丼って何でしょう?
“牛”は牛肉のことで。そして、“どん”は日本風のボウルの“どんぶり”を省略したものだよ。
牛丼は、どんぶりにつがれたご飯に、煮たスライス肉を味付けした煮汁と一緒に盛った料理なんだ。

でも、僕の目的は牛丼じゃなかく、うな丼だった!
“うな”は“うなぎ”を省略した言い方だ。日本では、うなぎはだいたい“蒲焼”で食べられる。
蒲焼は秘密のソースで直火で焼いたうなぎ料理のことだよ。そのソースは“タレ”と呼ばれてる。タレは甘くて、少し苦くて、そしてほんの少しピリっとした、とても複雑な味わいがある。
牛丼と同じく、うな丼はどんぶりにつがれたご飯に、蒲焼を盛った料理だ。

ところで、何で牛丼を食べたか?
日本では、7月にうなぎを食べる風習がある。“土用の丑の日”って言うんだ。
夏を前に、栄養のあるうなぎを食べることによって元気を維持できるっていう、昔の知恵なんだ。

うな丼を食べて、健康でいましょう!



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13 comments:

naqiubex said...

I've eaten eel also...
The taste is not bad..

Anonymous from Hong Kong said...

Just had dinner at Yoshinoya and I ate UNA-DON too!

Daphne said...

I love UNAGI!
I really love how that works. July is still here maybe I can get some unagi. mmm gotta love that eel sauce.

Anonymous said...

Eel is very rare in America. I actually don't eat it for religious reasons, but I've heard that it is good. Thanks for the fun post!

Bakkanekko said...

At first I was too scared to eat it ;u;
but one day, me and the whole family had a dinner at Sushi Groove (a Jap. Restaurant here) and I saw friend unagi served with rice bowl and it looks crispy and tasty *A* so I tried. Tho, I only like the fried one hahah..

Dávid said...

Hi

The title should be:'Have you eaten eel yet?". The present perfect verb tense is used for speaking about experiences. You use the simple past with a fixed time adverb like 'yesterday'(as you actually did at the beginning of the post:)
But people understand it anyway.

By the way, I've never ever eaten any of the bastards 'cos they look so horrible. Whenever I go fishing and catch one I just cut the line above it and let it go back. They make everything slimy and they look like snakes. Yuk!

Yodi Insigne said...

Yoshinoya is also famous here in the Philippines. On their menu are katsudon, teriyaki, kani strips, kani shu mai, shiitake, yakiniku, and a varitey of gyudon.
I usually have no idea what these foods are made of. I just eat them if they look and smell delicious.
I want to try the eel, but I guess it's not on their menu or maybe there is. Next time I will ask the store clerk.
At least now I know what gyudon means.
Thanks my friend.
Keep on blogging.
I'll be back.

gaijinhodge said...

Holy crap, I remember when the Japanese government banned American beef in 2004/2005. Yoshinoya was hit hard and so were all salarymen all throughout Japan. Maybe Yoshinoya should have started a wagyudon for 6000 yen a bowl!!!

http://kakkoiiblog.blogspot.com/

Kevin Reiner said...

hmm, eel. it's delicious. have anyone tried frog yet?

Bakkanekko said...

@Kevin Reiner I do. It's good :)

arcibaldo said...

i don't think yoshinoya has eel in this part of the world. i haven't tried eel yet japanese style - especially the grilled ones i often see in japanese movies and animation. but i enjoyed eating eel lao style... quite warm to the body especially with chili-based sauce, and quite an excellent partner for beer.

ジユリアナ said...

Hi

Eel? I had eaten eel when I was working as part-timer in Sushi King. &, thats for free ( cause I work there). Note: I love it..!

FYI, here in Malaysia, Japanese food is quite a high-priced (for me). & only by working I can get the chance to try it..:)

I think your idea of using the blog to learn English is quite the same reason why I start my blogs too, apart from a few other reason.
& I think I quite improved in these few months I been blogging.

& I also in the learning process of Japanese language..maybe we can help each other..

So, keep blogging..!

Hui2 said...

Hi, you would probably want to delete the previous comment by Anonymous posted on 13 July. It's an advert to some kind of porn site.