Unaju means grilled eel and rice served in a box. In old days, people seldom had a chance to eat meat because of a religious reason and limited supply routes. To beat the heat in summer, eel was the most typical animal protein.
Eel is grilled with special soy sauce. Main ingredients are soy sauce, sugar, sake (Japanese rice wine) and sweet cooking rice wine. Every eel specialty restaurant has its own sauce. Do not forget to sprinkle ground Japanese pepper.
