Hitsumabushi

In this article, I want to write about Hitsumabushi a specialty food of my hometown, Nagoya in Aichi prefecture. Hitsumabushi is a Nagoya dish of strips of boiled eels on rice, and it is one of the typical specialties of Nagoya's local foods called 'Nagoya-meshi'. Nagoya-meshi is Nagoya cuisine, though this was taken not in Nagoya but in Gifu prefecture. I wish you could enjoy eating Hitsumabushi more with my article.

There are several different eel meals and Hitsumabushi is one of them. Hitsumabushi is eel fillets cooked with soy flavoured special source on the charcoal, cut in small pieces and serve on the rice. HITSU is a kind of utensil, in this case meaning a container or a big bowl keeping rice. MABUSHI is noun form of "mabusu." The literal meaning of mabusu is to dust, but in this case, it is to put small pieces of barbecued eel on rice. Though eel may be instantly associated with Hamana-ko Lake, Shizuoka Prefecture, its top production area is actually Aichi Prefecture. Eel is slit open along the belly and grilled whole without steaming - that's the Nagoya style of cooking eel.

First, I will talk about Hitsumabushi’s history. Originally, it was founded in the Meiji era in Nagoya. It was designed to serve for group of people. When the meal was served from a big wooden tub to the large number of the people, it was hard to serve the equal amount of eels to people, therefore the waitress decided to cut the eel fillets into small pieces. At first, the restaurant owner was reluctant to cut high-quality eel fillets into small pieces, however to serve the eel pieces equally to the group of people, it was necessary.

Second, I will tell you how to eat Hitsumabushi. There're 3 ways to enjoy eating hitsumabushi, and the eating procedure is also unique. To begin with, the whole eel dish is divided into four portions. You put the first portion into your bowl and enjoy as it is; then you put the second helping in and put on some condiments (wasabi horseradish, nori dried laver, mitsuba trefoil, etc.) to your taste. The basic spice combination is chopped green onions, grated wasabi (horseradish), and nori (sliced dried laver) seaweed sheet cut into pieces, which go well with grilled eel. Enjoy the changes in tastes. Then you have the third portion in the same manner as the second portion plus green tea or broth poured over it, like o-chazuke soup with rice. And, finally, you can enjoy the remaining portion repeating one of the three methods you liked best!

If you come to Nagoya in Aichi prefecture, I really want you to try Hitsumabushi! I’ m sure you will enjoy it☆