Product Code Database
蒲焼 is a preparation of fish, especially unagi eel,, vol. 7,"kabayaki" by 本山荻舟 describes it as being used principally or almost always for unagi (「もっぱら鰻」) where the fish is split down the back the Japanese dictionary says kabayaki applies to such fish as ungai, hamo, and dojō (or belly), gutted and boned, butterflied, cut into square Fish fillet, , and dipped in a sweet soy sauce-based marinade before being cooked on a grilling.
Besides unagi, the same preparation is made of other long scaleless fish such as hamo (pike conger), dojō (loach), catfish, anago (conger eel), and ギンポ]] (Pholidae). One can also find canned products labeled as kabayaki-style sanma (Pacific saury).
Kabayaki eel is very popular and a rich source of vitamins A and E, and omega-3 fatty acids., p.144- A popular custom from the Edo period, pp.167-8, repeats a story of an eel purveyor from Edo who asked a calligrapher to write the Ox (day) character as a sign calls for eating kabayaki during the summer to gain stamina, especially on a mid-summer day called Midsummer Ox Day (土用の丑の日,) which falls between July 18 and August 8 each year., p.372 describes Doyo as "about eighteen days from July 20th", though in actuality the beginning date can shift a day or two. The days cycle through the twelve animals (twelve heavenly branches) so any one or two of the dates within the eighteen-day period can fall on an Ox day.
The eel kabayaki is often served on top of a bowl ( donburi) of rice, and called unadon, the fancier form of which is the unajū, placed inside a lacquered box called jūbako. It is also torn up and mixed up evenly with rice to make ひつまぶし, which is enjoyed especially in the Nagoya area.
In the Kansai region (western Japan), the eel is slit down the belly and directly grilled without being steamed, often still in their original length, and called 長焼き. The outer skin can be tough and chewy, so eel cooked in Kansai style may be placed between layers of hot rice, for the steam to help tenderize it.
In the Kansai area, the eel is often called mamushi,, p.9 just like the name of the common viper in Japan, Gloydius blomhoffii). Some speculate the name is a corruption of mabushi meaning "besprinkle", while others say it is a reference to the eel being rather similar to the viper in shape and vigor-endowing abilities when consumed.
Another touted theory explains the name as due to resemblance of the charred skin side to the i.e. "beech-bark" ("Record of Yamashiro province", "Record of Yamashiro province". Motoyama also notes a proposed etymology from "fragrant (esp. of toasted or roasted items)".
Kantō vs. Kansai
Broadly, two schools of cooking kabayaki exist. In the Kantō region (eastern Japan), the eel is slit down its back, p.140 and butterflied, so a lighter-colored stripe of the belly runs down the middle of each fillet on the skin side. The long eel is cut into shorter, squarer fillets and skewered., p.9 In Kanto, the skewered eel is first grilled, plain, into what is known as 白焼き or 素焼き, then steamed, before being flavored and grilled again; as a result, it turns out more tender and flakier after grilling., p.144-
Etymology
Several hypothesized origins for the name kabayaki are given. The name came to be generally written using the kanji 蒲焼 meaning cattail-grilled. Resemblance to the brown plush flower spikes of the cattail plant has been suggested as etymological origin in several old writings ("Considerations on colloquial words"; the writings of ; "Considerations on near modern age items", p.67). Food historian 本山荻舟(1881–1958) has argued that originally the whole eel was skewered vertically and cooked that way, giving rise to the name on the resemblance to the cattail both in form and color. This is incidentally the same as one hypothesized etymology for kamaboko.
Further reading
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