Shizuoka Prefecture

If you live in Nagoya, there is a good chance you already know about hitsumabushi. Many of the locals consider this dish of flame-grilled unagi [freshwater eel], slit from the belly, cooked in sauce, and served on a bed of rice to be an essential part of Nagoya’s cuisine. At Horaiken in Atsuta, perhaps the most famous unagi restaurant in town, people will queue round the block for a taste. However, unagi isn’t really a Nagoya thing, and the way unagi is prepared here is actually a Kansai (Osaka) style. But you don’t have to go all the way to Osaka to get great unagi because in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, you’ll find the freshest freshwater eel. Situated around Lake Hamana, Hamamatsu is THE place in the region to find great unagi. Why’s that, you ask? Because it is so famous for its eel that for more than 100 years, the lake has been Japan’s number one producer of unagi, making it a great place to visit to sample the real deal. What is Hamamatsu unagi? As well as Kansai-style unagi, the Kanto area (Tokyo and its surrounds) also has its version, but rather than being flame-grilled, it is instead split from…