Another day, another Michelin-starred meal in Japan. This one wasn’t quite as cheap as Nakajima, but it’s hard to care when the food is this good. This was straight-up one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.
The restaurant is called Hashimoto, and they specialize in unagi — glazed eel cooked over coals. The place was a bit expensive, so I went with the small size, which I bitterly regretted as soon as I took my first bite and realized how insanely delicious it was.
The eel was an absolute revelation. Who even knew eel could taste like this?? It was unctuously tender, with a hauntingly subtle sweetness from the slightly caramelized glaze.
The coal adds an absolutely perfect amount of smokiness; it’s always there, but it never overwhelms. Perfection.
The interplay between the smokiness, the sweetness, and the melt-in-your-mouth tender eel was magical.
The rice and the sauce was quite delicious as well, but holy crap, that eel. Holy crap.