. Choose from anago dishes and hakomeshi set boxes.){kind=link}
TOKYO | Japan is one of the best places in the world to enjoy eel. Unagi, or freshwater eel, is the most common kind of eel you’ll encounter, and it’s one of my favourites. There’s another variety though, that’s native to Tokyo bay, and that’s the leaner, more delicate, anago (saltwater conger eel). On my recent trip to Tokyo, I popped into anago specialists Tamai, to try what’s considered one of the best versions of anago in town.
Tamai is housed in a small, historic wooden building dating back to 1953, in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi neighbourhood. They have a few locations in Japan these days, and one in Taipei, but it’s hard to beat the character of the original. Their speciality is hakomeshi. It’s a term coined by Tamai to describe their way of serving anago in the Edo-mae (old Tokyo) style. That is, in traditional Japanese lacquered boxes, with assorted sides and condiments.
Choose your size (small, medium, or large), and cooking style (niage/simmered, yakiage/grilled, or ainose/both), and you’re good to go. Nigae anago is soft and delicate, while the glazed yakiage has a wonderful smokiness to it. I opted for both. All anago here is wild caught, with the exact region of sourcing following the seasons to ensure the highest quality.
Each hakomeshi contains your selected anago on rice, and is served with miso soup, freshly grated yuzu, sesame, wasabi, finely chopped leek, and sansho pepper. It’s recommended that you enjoy each bite as it is, and with different condiments, to appreciate how the flavour changes.
An option add-on, which I highly recommend, is the dashi made from anago bones. It’s a wonderfully smoky broth that you combine with a bit of rice and anago to form ochazuke. It’s another way of enjoying anago that opens up more flavour profiles.
There’s a few other things on the menu, like a large kaiseki with a selection of sides, tempura, nigiri, sashimi, and chirashi. To drink, it’s complimentary green tea, beer, sake, shochu, and soda. I recommend the modern-style Hito-nomi-zake junmai sake. It’s a fresh and clean, contemporary-style sake developed by Erika Watanabe of family-run Takarayama Sake Brewery.
Tamai (Nihonbashi)
3-7-4 Jingūmae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001
Japan
Telephone: (03) 3272 3227
E-mail: n/a
Website
Open
Mon – Fri: 11:00am to 2:30pm, 5:00pm to 9:30pm
Sat – Sun: 11:00am to 2:30pm, 4:30pm to 9:00pm