There is a reason behind every aspect of the delicious flavor that only a traditional restaurant with 65 years of history can offer.
Matsukawa's eels are always fresh. Why? It's because we have Tateba, a facility to keep eels alive, even though we are located in the middle of a city.
We buy strictly selected domestic eels and keep them alive in Tateba. This is why Matsukawa's eels are healthy.
Eat our healthy eels and make yourself healthy, too!
Eels have always been treasured as nourishment since old time. Eel Kabayaki, a traditional Japanese food, is delicious and healthy. It is said to be good for summer heat fatigue, as expressed in the famous poem of Otomo no Yakamochi found in the "Manyoshu", a collection of Japanese poetry compiled 1300 years ago.
I am telling you Iwamaro,
catch and eat an eel as I hear it is good for summer heat fatigue (Otomo no Yakamochi)
People eat eels on the Midsummer Day of the Ox in Japan, but eels are perfect to beat the summer heat for your health, too.
The sauce of Matsukawa has a light flavor, which keeps the flavor of the eels itself alive.
Mirin and soy sauce…The sweet and salty balance is just right and it is great with rice, too.
As people say 3 years for skewering, 8 years for slicing, entire life for broiling,
acquiring skills to cook eels is very difficult.
At Matsukawa, specialized eel chefs cook live eels every time an order comes in.
They slice open an eel that is actively wriggling in a blink of time, skewer it and broil it up… These professional skills that Japan is proud of is specially shown on YouTube to the public.
Kabayaki and rice…This golden pair is served in a box at Matsukawa…because "Una-ju" looks a little more formal than "Una-don". Kabayaki is a feast to eat on the day of celebration for Japanese people.
Kabayaki was originally eaten by itself. It is said that people often enjoyed it with sake. It first started to be served with rice as it is now around the end of the Edo period. "Una-don", where rice and Kabayaki were served in a bowl, was the first style.
This idea motivated us to create "Zei wo Tsukushita Una-don" (Una-don with every luxury imaginable) and we made two types of bowl dishes using our custom-made Arita ware bowls that our restaurant owner loves.
"Sometsuke Kikko Zakuro Mon Tokudai Yugai Donburi" (extra large lidded bowl of blue and white ceramics of tortoise shell and pomegranate design)
This bowl was made with Arita ware that our restaurant owner loves. Its unique shape was designed based on the splendid dish where the head of a sea bream is steamed. The food is presented on a large flat lidded bowl. Our restaurant owner's favorite early Imari ware is the model of the design. It has a lucky pattern where pomegranate shows through the tortoise shell shaped fence.
"Iroe Kikko Kiri Mon Yugai Donburi" (lidded bowl of colored picture of tortoise shell and paulownia wood design)
This bowl was made with Arita ware that our restaurant owner loves.A reproduced version of the design was manufactured by an expert potter of Arita ware at the beginning of the Showa era, under the order of the imperial family in order to have an envoy take it to a coronation ceremony of the King of England. This reflects the formality of the design.
Sake matches best for Kabayaki. Among all the sake, we highly recommend "Nishinoseki".
In the competition of "Japanese Sake that goes well with eel dishes, selected by professionals", sake from many brands go through the compatibility test with Kabayaki every year and this sake has won the top prize for 11 years in a row.
We pasted our original label of Matsukawa on Nishinoseki, a local specialty of Oita Prefecture, which is Junmaishu (pure rice wine) that has a perfect balance of high quality sweetness and soft acidic tastes, a delicious taste that will melt in your mouth.
Please enjoy the perfect harmony of Kabayaki and Nishinoseki.