Unagi - Freshwater eel

One of my favourite japanese foods is Unagi - freshwater eel.  They are fillet, grilled and baste with sweet thick sauce and serve over sushi rice.  I also enjoy the Unagi sushi and roll or pretty much anything with unagi.  Eventhough they are deboned, I can still feel small pieces of the eel bone while eating but they are so small and delicate that they don't bother my throat.

We came upon this lovely Unagi restaurant in Narita, Japan.  The grilling aroma drew us to this place and we had the chance to see them kill, debone, skew and grill the eel.  The place was crowded and we just had sushi for lunch at another place so we decided to try it on our way back instead.  Because the place was again crowded on our second visit and we were short on time to catch the bus to the hotel and to the airport, we decided to do a take-out order and eat at the hotel while waiting for the airport bus.

 I love the architecture of this building.  It looks original and untouched from the past but kept clean.  I love the wood and the color and all the expose beams and connections.  Walking down this street alley kinda brings you back to old japan.

It is a three storey building and we were told that upstairs could be the family residence.

 The older gentleman kills the eel and fillets them while the younger guy skewers them.

 These two guys as you can see grills them and occasionally baste them with the lovely sweet thick sauce.....yum yum yum......I love the sauce ..... :)

When we got back to the hotel to eat while waiting for the bus, we were gently surprised to see how much thought they put in packing our foods..... with ribbons and wrapping paper. The box is actually made of bamboo.  Who would have thought that homemade delicious food is in these boxes until you open them up.  It would be so nice to open up a box of these for lunch everyday ...won't it?... :)

It didn't take long for us to devour them........it was absolutely delicious.  We were already wishing we had bought more to eat on the plane..... :):):)