Unagiku is an eel specialist, housed in a serene, exquisitely preserved historical building right next to Kofuku-ji. It was at some point part of the temple complex. Reservation is a must.
The eel was good, and this was one of the better meals among the many good meals we had in Japan. Eel came in two flavors, boiled and grilled. We ordered four sets but the fatty and delicious eel really filled us up quickly. They had a variety of sets of different quantity, prep of eel.
But the surprise? Their warabi mochi was spectacular. Better than any we have had in Nara or Japan, before or after. Very soft, very tender texture. Almost tempted to order another plate to go. Really should have.
That’s kinako- toasted soy flour, with a bit of sweetness and a bit of savoriness for flavor to the warabi mochi.
The one at the bottom is eel liver, and the one on the right if i remember correctly was kamaboko/ fish cake, like narutomaki but in a different shape.
We passed by a warabi mochi shop on a busy street at the city center the next day. They did a dramatic mochi-making demo every ten minutes or so for the hoard of tourists passing by. It did brisk business but had none of the mochi magic from Unagiku’s mochi.
As you can see, deers are everywhere. One can get deer crackers to feed the deers. They are so used to humans that they just hang out everywhere around the temples, in the parks, in the shopping streets near Todai-ji. In fact, if you bow, they will bow back, expecting a treat in return.
A Nara native back home told me afterwards that the walk to e.g. Kasuga Taisha was supposed to be long and hard, a sort of cleansing for visiting the temple. Its not too bad at all along the shady path. Not like some folks who hiked up Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera from the train station in the middle of summer- now that’s some serious cleansing / detoxing.
