I got my first Christmas gift of the season today. My friend A., who lives in Hamamatsu, sent me Unagi Pie, a local delicacy that I have been mocking for years. There are two things you need to know about Unagi Pie.
1. Pie = cookie/cracker type thing. I can live with that.
2. Unagi = Eel. That's harder to swallow.
According to the box, these are "Snacks for nights." The box shows what at first appears to be one man bending over while another prepares to spank him. On closer examination it is two men fishing for eel.
I spent a few weeks traveling in Japan and ate a fair amount of eel, crunchy, little pink eel with purple eyes. Before that, I associated eel with Gunter Grass' Tin Drum. More specifically, with Volker Schlondorff's film scene of the eels writhing in the horse head. I've also spent plenty of time in dive Polish bars where there are pickled eggs and eel behind the bar. Big, fatty, oily eel. In Japan, I stayed at a monastery for a few days where they proudly served something called "mountain vegetable" for breakfast. Closer examination revealed tiny little eyeballs on my vegetable, or maybe I was just paranoid by that time. I ate everything except those horrible bright pink, sour balls served as a side at every meal.
So I'm game. I think it's crazy to make eel pie instead of Key Lime pie or eel cookies instead of chocolate-ginger cookies but I'll try this Unagi Pie; I'll snack on it at night. My friend A. can't scare me. I've decided that Friday night, when I get home from seeing American Buffalo, is the perfect night for eel pie with a shot of vodka to wash it down. There Stands the Glass seems like the right soundtrack for this event.
is that pink stuff the pie?! Don't eat that!
ReplyDeleteThat pic of you is funny! [in a good way]
No, the pink stuff is not the pie. She has a picture of the actual cookies, probably that should have been posted instead so as to avoid unnecessary trauma.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the pink balls are umeboshi, pickled plums, and they are delicious. Yeesh.