My Lunch Today -Unadon (Unagi Donburi)-
Posted by: kirin on 
Aug 7th, 2010 | 
Filed under: Japanese foods
I try as much as possible to eat some vegetables at each meal, but for this time I didn’t feel like eating anything more but Unagi Donburi!
When we eat Unagi at home, we usually buy baked Unagi just like this.
Considered that each package is for one person, it’s over 1000yen per person and slightly under 1000yen when discounted just like the one in this picture. Unagi is not reasonable enough even if we try to help ourselves at home. (Especially if we look for Unagi from Japan. The one from China is half a price, I guess. Safety of food is a big concern in Japan especially since the incident that some Chinese foods contained poison. It was a surprise by the way when I found Japanese powder milk sold at Narita airport for the Chinese people. It was written in Chinese and seemed to stress its safety because it’s a Japanese product. I just hope we can truly enjoy Chinese foods without worry.) Let alone, when we try to eat Unagi outside, we have to pay around 3000yen if we want to have the one that has proper quality and volume. Casual one might be from 1800yen or so. I’m talking about the price from authentic Unagi restaurants.
I hear most of people would microwave it for a few minutes, but I follow the way that makes Unagi from supermarkets tastes better.
So I took out Unagi from the fridge at room temperature for a while, then I placed it over the foil wrap and put some Sake (cooking wine) over it. How many tea spoons? Please don’t ask. Look, the one I’m holding is not even a tea spoon of table spoon! lol I just grabbed it from somewhere~! I guess 1-1.5 tbs is enough.
Usually Japanese kitchen has a fish grill just like this. I heated Unagi over medium heat for 3 minutes or so until it gets warm and soft.
Then I took it out and put the Unagi sauce over it that came along with the Unagi.
Just like this, and I heated it in a grill again for 1-2 minutes or so. *_* Sorry I really don’t measure anything! But be careful not to heat it too strongly or for too long a time because the sauce contains sugar, which is going to burn the Unagi.
Cut it and put it over the steamed rice.
Put some Sansho powder (山椒 that’s how we call it in Japanese) that also came along with Unagi and it’s ready! The meal could be perfect with some Japanese pickles though. :p Especially we are totally fatigued from this hot humid summer in Japan, it’s often recommended to eat Unagi proactively on the certain days in July or August. The day is called “Doyou no ushi no hi” (土用の丑の日) but as always, I don’t care about what others say. When I feel like eating it, I eat it. That’s it. 
If I try to go to Unagi restaurant on the Doyouno…the Unagi day, I can easily imagine it’s full of people who like to follow our tradition. I don’t like the crowds, so I guess this Unagi day for everyone in Japan is the last Unagi day for myself! lol
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August 7th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
simply great piece of Japanese cuisine. priceless…..keep it up
August 7th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
It looks good, but you hardly have any rice in there!
August 7th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Mm… I love Unagi don! I think it costs about 1200yen over here in Singapore. Yup… Singaporeans are mad about Japanese food!
August 7th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Looks amazing!
August 8th, 2010 at 1:22 am
Unagi wa eigo de eel desu ne. There is an American TV show called friends. One of the characters on the show kept pointing to his head and saying, "Unagi" thinking that it meant awareness or understanding. When he used this expression at a karate dojo the sensei asked another Nihonjin why he kept talking about eels. I have remembered unagi means eel ever since. You can learn Japanese in many different ways.
Unagi in not usually available in American stores. It is not a common food here. I did try it while at a festival in Osaka. I guess it is an acquired taste. I am surprised that it is so expensive in Japan. I would think that unagi is raised on farms like catfish is raised here.
I enjoyed this blogg. The way you prepared the meal makes it look delicious. I hope you enjoyed your meal
August 8th, 2010 at 3:07 am
Thank you. ^ ^
August 8th, 2010 at 3:08 am
Why? I have enough rice under the Unagi, which you can imagine from the picture before the final one.
August 8th, 2010 at 3:25 am
Ah, I should've said Unaju costs like 3000 yen at an authentic Unagi restaurant. Unaju usually has more Unagi compared with Unagi don. But when I cook at home, I use good volume of Unagi over donburi! haha ^ ^
August 8th, 2010 at 3:30 am
Thank you for sharing me the story. ^ ^
Oh I should've mentioned Unagi in Tokyo way and Osaka way is different. People from west Japan do not steam Unagi. So they eat it with more elastic…crunchy taste…do you know what I mean? While we, the people from East Japan would eat it more softly because we steam it.
I always forget something and notice that when I read people's comments. ^ ^;
And yes, I enjoyed the meal. I feel like eating Unagi so much once in a while. :p
August 8th, 2010 at 5:45 am
"MADE IN JAPAN" is like a insurance that it is good, it is safe. and most of the time its true ! maybe stuffs that gets exported is..anyway for skincare(a japan product) i really like this http://www.japalang.sg/cure/About_Cure.html been using it for about a year..and it is amazing.
that looks yummy.
also, idk have you touched on this topic before but i always see these Quick Response codes http://tips.webdesign10.com/search-engine-optimiz… in japanese products/ magazines..and im interested to see how would that barcode work in keitai denwa…….does it bring to applications?also im wondering why doesnt this work commonly outside of japan….took a quick youtube search, but those are US videos, would love to see how does the one in japan works !
August 9th, 2010 at 8:17 am
I love that you get a specific fish grill in the oven to save you firing up the whole oven just to grill fish. That's a genius idea!
August 9th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Oh that grill is installed apart from the oven almost all the kitchens in Japan. To be exact, there are still many people who don't have oven but fish grill is installed from the beginning no matter how cheap the kitchen is. That's because we eat fish a lot more than meat, I guess.
But my problem is that I hate washing the grill after use. I have noticed this is one of the reasons I don't like eating grilled fish so much… :p
August 9th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Yummy! I love unagi with ponzu sauce
August 10th, 2010 at 7:01 am
Yes, you're right! I can't see the rice under the unagi… Haha…
I do wonder how 3000yen Unagi taste like! =P
August 13th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
I really want to try Unagi!!
I can't wait to move to Japan to experience the food
August 14th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Are you moving to Japan? The best thing is to go to the authentic Unagi restaurant but if you cook at home, there are always good one and bad one which we cannot tell from the outside even if the price is not cheap.
August 14th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Yes I'm moving to Tokyo, to study at university.
i really want to go to an authentic restaurant first and then cook it myself.
i want to learn to cook real Japanese food
August 15th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Sounds nice~~! Your stay in Japan will be something really fun~~! Ah I want to go back to a student. ^ ^;
August 15th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
:’D Oh! This looks REALLY good! I just can’t live without seafood…and this Unagi that you prepared is making my mouth water. ; w ; Me and a friend have now a tradition of going to the near Japanese restaurant every Friday after school. I remember last Friday I got a huge bowl of…well I can’t remember what it was called but it was like octopus balls. It was really good. * ____ * Please keep sharing your blogs about Japanese Cuisine, Kirin!
August 16th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Thank you for your comment, Miki.
octopus balls? Takoyaki …I mean something like this? ^_^ http://www.google.com/images?hl=ja&rlz=1T4GGL…
October 31st, 2010 at 1:49 am
I just found this comment from spam filter! What a coincidence I got a sample of Cure the other day when I was shopping at…somewhere in Tokyo. So this is good right? I've never heard of the brand and I didn't think much of it since I read this comment from you!
Oh good, well sorry it was somehow sorted as spam comment and wasn't published until I do manually today but to have this comment at this timing was good to me!
The code is called QR code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code) and we can be led to the website by reading the code with cell phone. It's tiresome to enter http://www... but easier to focus on the code and led to the webpage, right?
March 28th, 2011 at 8:23 am
I used to love sushi for the salmon…
DD
but unagi-don has taken my heart BABEZ
Theres a really cool restaurant here in Hong Kong that specializes in different japanese rice bowls
NOM NOM ILY KIRIN!
( nice name by the way ;D )
March 29th, 2011 at 6:29 am
Oh you are from Hong Kong! I believe you have many Japanese food or goods available there. ^ ^
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