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is the Japanese word for freshwater eel, particularly the Japanese eel, . Unagi is a common ingredient in Japanese cooking, often as '' kabayaki''. 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. Unagi is high in
protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...
,
vitamin A Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that is an essential nutrient. The term "vitamin A" encompasses a group of chemically related organic compounds that includes retinol, retinyl esters, and several provitamin (precursor) carotenoids, most not ...
, and
calcium Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...
. Specialist unagi restaurants are common in Japan, and commonly have signs showing the word ''unagi'' with
hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...
U (hiragana: う, katakana: ウ) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora (linguistics), mora. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, they occupy the third place in the modern Gojūon (五十音) system of coll ...
(transliterated ''u''), which is the first letter of the word ''unagi''.
Lake Hamana is a brackish lagoon in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Formerly a true lake, it is now connected to the Pacific Ocean by a channel. As an internal body of water, it is considered Japan's tenth-largest lake (by area). It spans the boundaries of th ...
in Hamamatsu city,
Shizuoka prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...
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 Ox Day (doyo no ushi no hi). ''Unakyu'' is a common expression used for
sushi is a traditional Japanese dish made with , typically seasoned with sugar and salt, and combined with a variety of , such as seafood, vegetables, or meat: raw seafood is the most common, although some may be cooked. While sushi comes in n ...
containing eel and cucumber. As eel is poisonous unless cooked, eels are always cooked, and in Japanese food, are often served with
tare sauce is a general term in Japanese cuisine for dipping sauces often used in grilling (''yakitori'' and ''yakiniku'', especially as ''teriyaki'' sauce) as well as with ''sushi'', ''nabemono'', and ''gyoza''. It can also be used to make the soup for ...
. Unagi that is roasted without tare and only seasoned with salt is known as "shirayaki." Unagi is also commonly served in nigiri style, where a slice of grilled and glazed eel is placed atop a small bed of sushi rice, often secured with a thin strip of nori.


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. The Japanese Ministry of the Environment has officially added Japanese eel to the “endangered” category of the country's Red List of animals ranging from “threatened” to “extinct”. 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
parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...
s, waste products, and diseases to flow directly back into wild eel habitat, further threatening wild populations. Freshwater eels are
carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...
s and as such are fed other wild-caught fish, adding another element of unsustainability to current eel farming practices.


In popular culture

In the TV show ''
Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...
'', in the episode '' The One With Unagi'', Ross uses ''unagi'' to mean "a state of total awareness" in ''
karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...
''. The term for this state is actually '' zanshin''.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Japanese cuisine terms Japanese seafood