Does eel ramen really taste like eel?

A Japanese souvenir like no other.

Every year, people in Japan seek to combat the summer heat by eating eel. The tradition first started in the Edo period (1603-1868), when it was believed that eating foods starting with the letter “u” on Doyo no Ushi no Hi (“Day of the Ox”) during summer would bring relief from the heat, and it’s a custom that’s stuck ever since.

This summer, the Day of the Ox falls on 24 July and 5 August, so that’s when we can expect sales of unagi (eel) to peak, but not everyone has the time, money or inclination to eat the fish — yes, eels are a type of fish — leading retailers to offer some new alternatives.

▼ One of those alternatives is Unagi Ramen.

We discovered the unusual ramen at the Michi no Eki Roadside Station in Kashima City, Saga Prefecture. This rural store sells a lot of seafood-based souvenirs, given its proximity to the Ariake Sea.

The ramen itself hails from Yanagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture, which is famous for being the home of eel, so we were curious to find out what it would be like.

▼ At 1,296 yen (US$8.18) for a four-pack, the ramen works out to be around 324 yen per serving.

Each bag contains dried noodles, powdered soup, and a sachet of Japanese pepper. Since it’s instant, all you have to do is add the noodles to boiling water, let them loosen, then add the soup and garnish with Japanese pepper and you’re done.

It certainly looks different to a regular bowl of instant ramen, with the thick, dark broth hinting at rich, soy sauce-based flavours. However, according to the ingredients on the back of the pack, the broth contains eel extract, so when we took a big slurp we tried to detect the eel, but lo and behold, we couldn’t.

The broth had a sweet soy sauce-like taste typical of Kyushu ramen, but no matter how hard we tried, our brain just couldn’t compute that it had eel in it. Even when we did some extra research and found that the flavour was designed to resemble eel cooked kabayaki-style (basted in a sweet soy sauce), we couldn’t detect that complexity, as it still tasted like soy sauce ramen.

While that might be a disappointing result for eel lovers, those with a passing interest in the flavour will no doubt be relieved to know the ramen doesn’t punch you in the face with fishiness. So next time you’re looking to beat the heat, Japanese style, you might want to keep an eye out for eel ramen. Or you can follow the foreign tourists to this vendor in the backstreets of Asakusa for a much stronger taste of eel.

Related: Unagi Ramen Online Shop
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