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Eel Quotes

Browse 16 quotes about Eel.

Eel Quotes

“Here's the soup. Nothing new, but if you're going to have broth in summer, it has to be botan-hamo: lightly boiled hamo eel, named for the way it's cut into the shape of a peony to remove the bones. As for this ayu rice, the only ingredient is in the name. The fish are deboned, so all you need to do is sprinkle some of these chopped mitsuba leaves on top. The pickles on the side are eggplant and myoga ginger. Now, you tuck in, and I'll bring you a cup of hojicha.”

SummerSoupSeafoodFishJapanese CuisineGreen TeaEel
Book:The Restaurant of Lost Recipes
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“Japanese people may find this surprising, but eel is a common ingredient in European cuisine. Kurokiba's Eel Matelote from the Classic's Semifinal Round is one such European dish." "Southern Italy in particular has a tradition of eating eel right around Natale, which is Christmas. It's often served during the feasts for La Vigilia on Christmas Eve night. The eels are supposed to symbolize devils, and eating them is thought to be a charm warding off bad luck and evil spirits.”

TraditionChristmasItalianSymbolicTakumi AldiniEelNataleIsami AldiniAldini Brothers
Book:食戟のソーマ 25 [Shokugeki no Souma 25]
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“This one is skewered guts. It's all the guts except the liver." "It's got that unique texture of a gut, with a slightly bitter taste!" "The flavor of the guts tends to seep out when you make soup with it, but this retains all its refreshing original flavor!" "This is a fin skewer. As you can guess from its name, it's the dorsal fin of the eel... ... wrapped around a skewer with ribs and garlic chives." "This is my favorite one!" "They throw these parts away when they make kabayaki." "Ah! I understand why this is your favorite, Yamaoka-san! The eel and the garlic chives create a rich, savory flavor!" "I never thought eel and garlic chives would go so well together!" "The dorsal fin of a left-eyed flounder is called an engawa, and it's considered a delicacy. It's the most active part of the fish's body, so it's fatty and good to eat." "The same goes for the eel." "This one is the collar. It's the meat around the neck, below the eyes... ... which I cut open and skewered after taking the head off. The head bone is very tough, so this is the only part of the eel I throw away." "Hmm, so it's called the "collar" because it's the area around the neck." "It has a complex flavor to it too. It's totally different from the stomach meat, the guts or the dorsal fin!" "It kind of tastes like a mixture of fish and lamb meat! There are so many other skewers, right?!" "Yahata-maki, which is eel meat wrapped around burdock. Tanzaku, where the meat has been cut like strips of paper. Smoked eel. And of course, we can't forget the famous kabayaki.”

GarlicJapanese FoodEelSkewersSpecializeIzakayaInnards
Book:Izakaya: Pub Food
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“The early-morning food is both perfunctory and delicious. Wedges of grapefruit and orange, a glass of blood orange juice and a bowl of rice threaded through with flakes of dried seaweed and beads of salmon roe as bright as Christmas baubles. It is the bowl of soup that is extraordinary. The usual light, instant miso has been replaced by a rich chicken broth, deeply savory, the beads of fat on its surface supporting a single floating mushroom. When I am eating eel donburi from a rust-red lacquered bowl and they bring me a cup of eel broth to go with it. Deeply smoky, slightly oily, dark as night.”

BreakfastJapanese FoodEelMiso Soup
Book:A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts
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“I celebrated my arrival in Kyoto with a dinner of grilled eel, a sublime delicacy in Japan. In the water the fish resembles a ferocious jagged-toothed snake. But when sizzled over hot charcoal it looks like a fillet of sole that has spent the winter in Palm Beach. The skin turns crisp and smoky and the fatty white flesh, basted with a sweet soy syrup, becomes deeply tanned and as succulent as foie gras.”

DelicacyKyotoJapanese CuisineEel
Book:Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto
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“Today's rice is mixed with hamo eel," said Nagare, returning with a Shigaraki-ware clay pot and a small, lidded bowl. "Interesting. I've had hamo as sushi plenty of times, but never with regular rice." "Well, it's certainly not as fancy as sushi," replied Nagare, setting the pot down on a woven straw mat. "Anyone could whip it up at home." "And what's the soup?" asked Nobuo, removing the lid from the small bowl. "I chopped up the skin from the hamo and made it into dumplings. Add a bit of this yuzu peel too, if you like." Nagare appeared to have deliberately used one of Nobuo's creations to serve the soup. A tempting fragrance was rising from the jet-black lacquered bowl. "Regular green tea all right for you?" asked Koishi, showing him a Kyo-ware teapot. "Oh, yes. In fact, at home I like to have a cup of bo-cha." "Bo-cha?" repeated Koishi, pausing with her teapot at the ready. "A specialty of Kaga, back in Ishikawa. It's a sort of roasted green tea--- like hojicha, basically, but made using the stems rather than the leaves. It's all about the fragrance." "Nothing like it after a good meal, is there?" Koishi poured the green tea into a tall, narrow cup, releasing a smoky aroma. "This is just a small portion for now," said Nagare, placing a bowl of rice in front of Nobuo. "But there's plenty in the pot, so just tell me if you'd like more." Nobuo's eyes widened. "This is the... hamo rice?" "Almost looks like plain white rice, doesn't it? I broke up the flesh from some grilled hamo and mixed it into the freshly cooked rice, and shredded perilla for seasoning. Really ties the flavors together. And if you're wanting to pour that tea over your rice and eat it chazuke-style, I'd recommend adding some of these toppings: wasabi, nori seaweed, and crumbled rice crackers." Nagare set the wooden spatula he'd used to serve the rice on the lid of the clay pot. "I didn't realize the hamo flesh would be this white without the skin," said Nobuo, reaching for his chopsticks. "It's practically gleaming!" Just as Nagare had said, it looked like little more than regular white rice. But as he raised a clump of it toward his mouth, the potent smell of hamo reached his nose first. The rice was clearly packed with the eel's flesh. Meanwhile, its skin had been used to make dumplings for the soup. This determination not to let any ingredient go to waste seemed typical of Nagare's style.”

SoupJapanese CuisineGreen TeaDumplingsEelWaste NotWhite Rice
Book:The Menu of Happiness
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“He appeared a moment later bearing a bowl of rice topped with eel. "Thought I'd grill some soy-marinated hamo eel, rather than the usual unagi. Steamed it too, Tokyo-style, so the bones should be nice and soft. This soup is made from the liver--- add a dash of ginger juice if you feel like it. As for the eel, some of this ground sansho pepper should pair with it nicely.”

SoupRiceLiverJapanese CuisineEel
Book:The Menu of Happiness
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“Each bite is a tidal wave of savory, fatty eel juices... ... made fresh and tangy by the complementary flavors of olive oil and tomato! ...! It's perfect! This dish has beautifully encapsulated the superbness of Capitone Eel!" "Capitone specifically means 'Large Female Eel'! It's exactly this kind of eel that is served during Natale season from Christmas to New Year's. Compared to normal eels, the Capitone is large, thick and juicy! In fact, it's considered a delicacy!" "Yes, I've heard of them! The Capitone is supposed to be significantly meatier than the standard Anguilla." *Anguilla is the Italian word for regular eels.* "Okay. So the Capitone is special. But is it special enough to make a dish so delicious the judges swoon?" "No. The secret to the Capitone's refined deliciousness in this dish lies with the tomatoes. You used San Marzanos, correct?" "Ha Ragione! (Exactly!) I specifically chose San Marzano tomatoes as the core of my dish!" Of the hundreds of varieties of tomato, the San Marzano Plum Tomato is one of the least juicy. Less juice means it makes a less watery and runny sauce when stewed! "Thanks to the San Marzano tomatoes, this dish's sauce remained thick and rich with a marvelously full-bodied taste. The blend of spices he used to season the sauce has done a splendid job of highlighting the eel's natural flavors as well." "You can't forget the wondrous polenta either. Crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle. There's no greater garnish for this dish." *Polenta is boiled cornmeal that is typically served as porridge or baked into cakes.* "Ah. I see. Every ingredient of his dish is intimately connected to the eel. Garlic to increase the fragrance, onion for condensed sweetness... ... and low-juice tomatoes. Those are the key ingredients.”

FemaleSauceTomatoesJuicyItalian CuisineEelJulioPolenta
Book:食戟のソーマ 25 [Shokugeki no Souma 25]
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“On a deep bed of rice sits a neat rectangle of grilled eel fillets, a dish I could easily choose as my last supper if I could eat it here, in Japan. Those bronzed pieces of fish, shiny, soft enough to cut with chopsticks and tantalizingly savory, are the food I dream of when I am on the plane, and are now sitting in their shining box, dusted very lightly with fine green sansho pepper. What I refer to as Japanese dust-- the ground dried berries with notes of pepper and citrus.”

SeasoningsJapanese CuisineEel
Book:A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts
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“The key to this risotto is Japanese peppers of all things?!" "It's sharp, refreshing aroma highlights the mellow body of the cheese... while making the eel's umami flavor flash like an explosion!" "And that one key ingredient that quietly ties it all together... ... is garlic!" "Garlic?! In traditional Japanese cuisine?! That's almost unheard of!" "Those are special smoked garlic chips a junior of mine made. They were smoked using wood from a walnut tree, which is known to emphasize seafood flavors well. By lightly crushing those chips and sprinkling them on as a topping, I added a pleasantly crunchy texture to the dish. But the most critical feature of my dish... is that I broiled the eel using the Kansai region Kabayaki style. Unlike the Kanto region style, there's no steaming step. Leaving all that oil in gives the eel a more fragrant aroma with a heavier texture and stronger flavor... ... meaning it pairs much more naturally with a flavor as powerful as garlic. *Steaming the eel makes much of its natural oil seep out, leaving the flesh light and fluffy.* But what makes these chips so extraordinary... is that they're infused with Ibusaki's earnest passion and the pure sweat of his helpers, Aoki and Sato. There's no way they could not be delicious!" "Ew! Don't say they're infused with sweat! That's gross!" "This much alone is already an impressively polished gourmet course. What's in store for us in that teapot?" "That is eel-liver broth, my lady. I dressed the eel's liver and then sautéed it in olive oil with some smoked garlic chips. Then I poured the sake Sakaki and Marui made over the top and let the alcohol cook off before adding bonito stock to make a broth. It matches beautifully with the cheese that Yoshino and Nikumi made, creating a soft flavor with a splendid aftertaste.”

CheeseLiverGarlicJapanese CuisineRisottoEelMentioned
Book:食戟のソーマ 25 [Shokugeki no Souma 25]
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“Everything on this platter is hamo eel or ayu sweetfish: two essential parts of Kyoto summer cuisine," explained Nagare. "Starting from the top left: miniature hamo sushi rolls. One teriyaki-style, and one shirayaki--- without any seasoning, that is. Next to that, in the small bowl, is shredded hamo eel skin, pickled and served with okra. On top of the bamboo grass leaf are two little ayu, caught in the Katsura River--- salted and grilled. In the glass sake cup is a delicacy known as uruka--- basically the salted entrails and roe of the ayu. Similar to shiokara, if you've had that. The deep-fried dish in the middle on the right is ayu fry. They're sprinkled with sansho pepper salt, so you can enjoy them as they are. Bottom right, on the perilla leaf, is hamo no otoshi: boiled slices of the eel, served with pickled plum paste and myoga ginger. Bottom left, meanwhile, is hamo no hasamiyaki, which is seasoned with white miso and fried between slices of Yamashina eggplant.”

SeafoodFishJapanese CuisineEelSeasoned
Book:The Restaurant of Lost Recipes
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“The younger guy placed the eel meat atop our rice and then pulled out the world's coolest cooking utensil. My jaw literally dropped. I looked over at Iris. Her mouth was hanging open, too. The world's coolest cooking utensil is a sauce ladle. The cup at the end of the handle is a cube with three thin spouts emerging from the side, better to dispense sauce thinly over a wide area. It's a tiny watering can for sauce- in this case, sweet eel sauce, made from eel bone broth enriched with soy sauce, sugar, and mirin.”

CookingSauceEelUtensil
Book:Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo
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“Iris's favorite item at Tenta is anago, sea eel. Unlike its freshwater cousin unagi, anago is neither endangered nor expensive. A whole anago at Tenta is about $7.50. I ordered one, and the chef pulled a live eel out of a bucket. It wriggled like, well, an eel. Iris screamed as water droplets flew toward us. The chef managed to wrestle the unruly thing into the sink and knocked it unconscious before driving a spike into its head and filleting it. He unzipped two fillets in seconds. A Provençal saying holds that a fish lives in water and dies in oil; in the world of tempura, a fish can go from watery cradle to oily grave in ten seconds. Iris loved fried eel meat, dipped in salt, but this is not her favorite part of the anago. After filleting the eel, the chef takes its backbone- hone in Japanese- ties it in a simple overhand knot, and tosses it into the frying oil. "Hone," he says, presenting it to Iris, who considers it the ultimate in crispy snack food- and this is a kid who considers taco-flavored Doritos a work of genius (OK, so do I).”

BackboneEelTempuraAnago
Book:Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo
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“Mmm! It's so hot and juicy! It looks like he marinated the eel in some red wine and cinnamon to underscore its flavor with a touch of freshness before he cooked it." "I stuck some gunpowder in that eel, y'know. Some very special gunpowder... to blow your dish out of the water!" "Mmm! What?!" Where did this sharp, vivid taste come from?! The eel. Kurokiba must have secreted something inside of it... He got us. It's dried plums!" Dried plums? You mean prunes?!" "Eel and prunes?!" Aha. He rehydrated some dried plums and then used the crépine to keep them wrapped inside of the eel. "Mmm! The fruity tang of the plums is mixing together with the rich, heavy juices from the eel...”

PlumsEelRyo KurokibaDried
Book:食戟のソーマ 11 [Shokugeki no Souma 11]
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“He's panfried those thick, juicy chunks of eel to a perfect golden brown!" "And now he's going to simmer it in red wine with a bouquet garnish!" "I thought so. Ryo Kurokiba is making a matelote!" EEL MATELOTE Coming from the French word for sailor, matelote is freshwater fish stewed in a red-wine sauce. Any fish can be used, but the most traditional preparations include freshwater eel. "That is definitely a dish fit for the Western-Entrée theme." "Huh? Didn't he have the eel filleted before? Now they're back to their old shape again." "He wrapped them in a crépine to hold them in shape. A logical choice, given the chef. The fattiness of the crépine adds depth to the eel's flavor, giving it a greater punch." Eel Matelote... hot and fluffy mashed potatoes... handmade brioche rolls... He's quickly and efficiently playing his cards one by one! I see. So this... ... is how he pieces together such powerful dishes. He has built a deck packed with strong cards to completely overpower his opponent... ... just like a veteran card gamer!”

EelRyo KurokibaMatelote
Book:食戟のソーマ 11 [Shokugeki no Souma 11]
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