SAKAI -- What comes to mind when you hear a dish called "eel curry and rice"?
Perhaps the cost, due to the high price of unagi eels in recent years? Or perhaps an image of kabayaki grilled eel with its sweet-and-savory sauce atop the curry and rice?
When my friend recently asked me to try the dish at a cafe featuring eels, these thoughts were among the many running through my mind.
To many Japanese, the classic eel dish is eel grilled with kabayaki sauce served on rice. It is a treat especially in midsummer to get through the sweltering heat. You can usually expect to pay approximately 3,000 yen to 5,000 yen for the delicacy.
At the Unagi Museum & Cafe Zacconekan, however, I encountered a wealth of surprises.
The eel curry was placed before me and I did not see even one piece of eel. I had a couple of bites, but I did not sense any of the usual unagi flavor or texture that I know from having eaten grilled eels. There wasn't even a fishy smell. Instead, it was spicy, though not too hot, and aromatic, with a thick, smooth texture. It was delicious and puzzling at the same time.
Cafe owner Tetsuo Kamei, a 72-year-old former principal of private junior and senior high schools, told me he uses three whole kabayaki grilled eels to make 30 servings of the curry. He added the dish to the menu about five years ago after seeking recipes for eel curry from chef acquaintances and his former students.
"We chose one recipe for an Indian curry proposed by my former student and another recipe for a Japanese curry proposed by a Japanese cuisine chef," Kamei said. "I spend eight hours to cook the two kinds of curry using eels and an extra hour to cook them together to make this curry."
The dish is priced at 1,500 yen and it might sound a bit pricey for curry and rice, but thinking about the taste, the cost of the ingredients and the effort Kamei put in to make the dish, it was well worth it.
The Unagi Museum is a private aquarium featuring freshwater fish Kamei opened at his home in 1995 after he became interested in growing medaka, or Japanese killifish. About 15 years ago, his interest in freshwater fish expanded to eels. He now keeps about 100 to 150 freshwater fish, including about 40 eels, from around the world in about 70 tanks in his yard. Volunteers such as local students and regulars to the cafe take care of them.
The cafe and aquarium are open to the public only from Friday afternoons. Aside from the curry, the cafe offers such eel dishes as fried rice and hamburger steaks that contain eels and even bread that contains finely powdered eel bones.
As I ate the curry and the bread immediately after watching live eels in the tanks, it dawned on me that there was a new form of love toward not only the fish, but also things or even humans in general. It may sound weird, but the food served at the cafe tells you that there are various ways to express your love.
The spicy curry and rice is the result of Kamei and his friends' love and passion for the eel, and so is the bread. It might actually be easier to say "I like" or "I love" something or someone, rather than to express the feeling in such indirect and inexplicit ways. Without love and passion, Kamei could not have been able to offer these unique dishes featuring eels.
Unagi Museum & Cafe Zacconekan
Open: Fridays, 3 p.m.-10 p.m.
Address: 1-10-8 Kaorigaokacho, Sakai Ward, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture
Phone: (072) 233-8831
Cash only
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