In Japan, the traditional accompaniment to broiled eel (Jp. unagi) is a small bowl of kimosui (肝吸い), eel liver soup. An eel's liver is one of the nastier-looking things I've encountered at the dinner table. Have you ever seen a diagram of the human digestive system, starting with the esophagus, then the big bulge of the stomach sac, tapering into the intestines? Well, color it a uniform shiny gray, shrink it down to 5 centimeters in length and add in a few random appendages, and you'll have a fair idea of what lurks at the bottom of a bowl of kimosui. Not the kind of thing you expect to chopstick out of your average cup of miso, I assure you...

Just the same, in this particular instance it pays not to judge a book by its cover, or an eel by its liver. Should you happen to like the livers of larger animals, odds are you'll find the eel version to be quite tasty as well. Even if I do still like the rest of the eel more.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.