Nobody Doesn't Like Eel!

Had my first unagi shop experience. For those who don't know, unagi is Japanese for fresh-water eel. There are entire restaurants dedicated to this animal. One of my lessons, Mrs. Kobayashi, wanted to take me to one of her usual spots, which was on the north side of the hospital. Per usual, I had no idea what the menu was saying, so she ordered for me. Above is a picture of what I got. Starting at the top left, I'll describe what each thing is. The first dish has some pickled cabbage and daikon, or radish. To the right is a cup of green tea, and next to that is some eel soaked in rice vinegar. The cup of soup on the top right is basically water with some sprouts, onions, and pig skin thrown in. Very light, but really tasty. On the bottom right is, you guessed it, a big bowl of rice. Next to that is some egg, with eel in the middle of it. And the main course, of course, was an entire grilled eel, basted in a sweet sauce. Delicious meal, I could eat eel every day if it weren't so expensive. Ran into a small problem though. You see in the main dish, the black piece on the top left. It's easy to tell in this picture that it's the head of the eel, but from my vantage point, I thought it was the tail. Yep, you guessed it, I ate it. You know, because the tail would probably be nothing but good meat. The pop of the eyeball in my mouth, and the crunching of my teeth upon the myriad of bones quickly alerted me that I had completely misidentified which end of the animal I was eating. But, because I'm so awesome, I chewed for a while and managed to swallow it down. Actually, it was because my student chose that moment to see if I liked what I was eating, so there was no way for me to spit out the head into a napkin. Oh well, next time I will be more careful to check for eyeballs before I put a piece of food into my mouth. Definitely have to go back to this place again for another great meal!