Unagi

Last month while my mother was in Japan, she took some friends of ours and I out to an unagi (fresh water eel) restaurant in Yokohama. Unlike most unagi restaurant's, we were shown our unagi before it was grilled. As the chief explained the menu, the unagi kept trying to get away. A few times one of them managed to make it onto the table and floor, causing a bit of excitement among a few of the female diners

Before our unagi came out, we were served an appetizer of sushi. To grind the wasabi, the chief used a piece of sharks skin as a grater. The sushi also came with a little surprise. What at first glance seemed to be some sake, turned out to be the still beating hearts of our unagi inside sake cups. We were instructed to pour warm sake into the glass and then drink it all at once.

Not surprisingly nearly everyone, aside from myself and a friend of mine, declined to try it. The sake tasted rather sweet with a slight tint of blood. The raw heart itself was quite soft and had a strong blood like taste to it, which covered my entire palate. The taste was really a rather unusual one. So rather than let everyone else's sake and unagi heart go to waste, I helped myself to a couple more glasses.