Eel bowl
Uh...... It's been so hot these days! Rainy season seems to be gone, and the full-fledged "heat" season has come here in Japan.Today, it is sunny, and the temperature in my house is 32C (89.6F) , the humidity 56 percent.
(early in the morning I opened every single window of my house to let out heat and get winds in, though)
I'd say it is cooler than yesterday. It must have been over 40C outside on asfalt roads (of course joking), but it was that hot.
Anyway, amid this unbelievably hot weather, we tend to lose our appetite, finally strength.
Oh please, doesn't anything give us some treatments?!
---Yes of course, there is a special one. It is, EEL.
Do they eat eel in your country? If no, it may sound strange.
In traditional Japanese calendar there is a day called "doyo-no-ushi-no-hi," translated as "Midsummer Day of the Ox," this year it fell on July 23rd. And on this day it is customary to eat eel.
One reason might be like this: people in the past times knew from experience that eating eel helped them gain energy, so they might think they should eat eel when having little appetite in midsummer.
Actually, eel is a very nutritious food. Did you know?
So around "doyo-no-ushi-no-hi" day, every fish shop, supermarket, and department store frantically sells eel, often roasted and soysause-and-sugar-seasoned eel, which is called "kabayaki."
This is what I ate on that day. I bought "kabayaki" eel and put it on a bowl of cooked rice.
This dish is called "una-don (pronounced like woo-na-don)." Una is unagi(woo-na-gi), meaning eel, and don is domburi, a bowl.
Seems tasty, huh? It was!! :)
What is your "rescuer" from the decreased appetite during dog days of summer?!
posted by asta @ 1:15 PM
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