【Reading】あなご

【English Name】Conger Eel

Anago is a general name for saltwater fish classified in the family Congridae of the order Anguilliformes, with more than 200 species in over 30 genera recorded worldwide. Its body is a slender, tube-like shape similar to the eel, but it is distinguished by lacking scales. In Japan, the word anago generally refers to the maanago (conger eel; scientific name Conger myriaster), which inhabits the sandy-muddy seabed of shallow waters.

As a sushi ingredient, nigiri of simmered conger (nianago) is the most representative form, and the standard style is to finish it by brushing the surface with a sweet-savory reduction sauce (tsume). It also has a wide culinary range, including tempura, kabayaki, and yawatamaki rolled around a burdock core. In the Edo period, the offshore waters of Haneda in Tokyo Bay were known as a major fishing ground, and anago has long been counted as one of the representative ingredients of the Edomae tradition. Fish from the Seto Inland Sea are also highly valued in the Kansai area. Around Miyajima in Hiroshima Prefecture, anago-meshi, kabayaki served over rice, is widely enjoyed as a local specialty originating from ekiben (station bento).

It is nocturnal and habitually hides during the day in holes in the seabed and crevices in rocks, which is said to be the origin of the name anago (the character 穴 means hole). In its juvenile stage it drifts in the sea as a transparent larva called a leptocephalus, which is also eaten under the popular name noresore. In Futtsu City, Chiba Prefecture, there is a custom of calling anago by the distinctive local name hakarime.