Eels: An Exploration, From New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish by James Prosek

Author:James Prosek
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: Science
ISBN: 0060566116
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-21T10:00:00+00:00

We had come to document the road’s end for the eel. In midsummer, an especially large volume of eels passes through Tsukiji. Eel is the sixth-largest import to Tsukiji overall annually, but now, at high season, it is the third-largest, surpassed in live weight only by tuna and shrimp. More than 130,000 tons of eel are consumed in Japan per year, mostly in the form of a grilled eel dish called kabayaki unagi. The Japanese eat more eel in midsummer than any other season because they believe the flesh gives them stamina in the relentless heat—relief from what they call natsubate, or summer fatigue.

Eel consumption peaks at the end of July on doyo unagi, Eel Day. On that particular day bold, colorful signs, flags, and posters commemorate the event, and eel is sold in every supermarket and roadside convenience store. This year Eel Day fell on the twenty-eighth of July, toward the end of our trip, and the city was appropriately hot.

The custom of eating eel in summer began as a marketing ploy. Actually, the proper name for the day when people eat eel is not Eel Day but doyo no ushi no hi, the Day of the Ox. This story is well told in Theodore Bestor’s book Tsukiji: “An eighteenth-century Edo unagi (eel) restaurateur had the bright idea of commissioning a famous calligrapher to make a simple sign proclaiming, ‘Today is the day of the Ox.’ The fame of the calligrapher ensured that passersby would notice the sign and the eel shop, and make the desired assumption that there was something special about the day and its relationship to unagi. Once made, the connection stuck.”

Kunio said that such clever marketing was a tradition in Japan. He followed with a contemporary example. “Thirty years ago, they never ate chocolate in Japan. Then some savvy marketing guy started a trend where women buy men chocolate on Valentine’s Day. Now chocolate sales are huge in February.” He added, “It is like you eat turkey on Thanksgiving.”*

Eating eel in midsummer may have been popularized by savvy marketing, but there could be some substance to the belief that eel beats summer fatigue. Eel meat has well-known health-giving properties.* It is high in vitamins A and E, containing four times more vitamin A than cheese and eight times more than egg, six times more vitamin E than cheese and three times more than egg. Vitamin A is good for human skin. Vitamin E helps prevent aging. Eel is also rich in fish oils that contain antioxidants to aid the immune system and fight sickness. Because of its high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids, eel has been found to help prevent type 2 diabetes. A native of Kyoto told me, “They have a saying in Kyoto—that the girls have beautiful skin because they eat eel.”

Eel is not commonly prepared at home, but is customarily eaten in eel-only restaurants. Part of the reason is the difficulty of pacifying and preparing the unruly fish.* Also, while cleaning an

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