Why is hamo (sea eel) a luxury dish in Kyoto?
Published in
1 min readApr 3, 2017
Hamo is a very ferocious and strong fish. It is difficult to cook as there are a lot of small bones in it. Since the edo period, hamo has been eaten in Kyoto because it is too strong to be transferred distance. It was not popular in Osaka because of the hazardous nature of the animal. Hamo is cut into bite-size pieces, so only the meat of each piece is sliced finely while at the same time leaving the skin in once piece. Because of this special technique, the small bones of hamo are no longer concerned when one eat it. They are parboiled and soon cooled in ice water, then eaten with ume (Japanese apricot) sauce. People can feel the change of the season when they eat hamo in summer.
