鰻 · ウナギ · unagi
Unagi
Unagi is freshwater eel — always served cooked and lacquered with sweet kabayaki tare. Rich, tender, beloved — and, as an endangered species, ethically loaded.
- Also known as
- freshwater eel, kabayaki
- Species
- Anguilla japonica (Japanese eel)
- Category
- Simmered & cooked (nimono)
- Texture
- tender, flaky — sweet glaze, rich, smoky
- Peak season
- Jul, Aug (farmed year-round)
- Sustainability
- red — The Japanese eel is IUCN-listed Endangered (since 2014); Seafood Watch rates it avoid.
- Mercury
- Not in the FDA consumer table
- Pregnancy
- Generally safe
- Price tier
- $$$
Freshwater eel, always cooked
Unagi is freshwater eel, and a key rule of sushi: it is never served raw. It’s filleted, steamed and grilled over charcoal, then lacquered with a sweet soy kabayaki tare — rich, tender and a little smoky. Over rice, it’s unadon.
Summer stamina food
In Japan, unagi is a midsummer tradition — eaten on Doyo no Ushi no Hi (the “Day of the Ox”) to build stamina against the heat.
Not edomae — and endangered
Traditional edomae sushi uses anago (saltwater eel), not unagi. And there’s a serious catch: the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) has been IUCN-listed as Endangered since 2014, and Seafood Watch rates it avoid. The nerd-and-ethics move is to know the difference — see anago vs unagi.