Қуырылған тұтқыр балық салынған жапондық тағам (Unadon)

Japanese rice dish topped with eel filets

Unadon (鰻丼) is a dish originating in Japan. It consists of a donburi type large bowl filled with steamed white rice, and topped with fillets of eel (unagi) grilled in a style known as kabayaki, similar to teriyaki. The fillets are glazed with a sweetened soy based sauce, called tare and caramelized, preferably over charcoal fire. The fillets are not flayed, and the grayish skin side is placed faced down. Sufficient tare sauce is poured over so that some of it seeps through the rice underneath.

Variations include unajū (鰻重, the same dish served in jūbako (重箱), food boxes often lacquered), nagayaki (長焼き, the eel and rice are served separately), and hitsumabushi (ひつまぶし, finely chopped eel kabayaki scattered (mabusu) over rice in a wooden rice container (hitsu) from Nagoya). There are two styles of grilled eel, the topic of which is covered more precisely under kabayaki. Essentially, in the Kantō region style, the eel is steamed before being grilled with sauce, which makes the eel more tender. The other is the Kansai region style, which is grilled without steaming.

Una don was the first type of donburi rice dish, invented in the late Edo period, during the Bunka era (1804–1818) by a man named Imasuke Ōkubo in Fukiyachō (葺屋町) (adjacent to Sakai chō) at some indeterminate time, but presumably before the theaters burnt down in 1841 and moved off. After the great famine of 1844, it started selling the unadon for one oblong Tenpō sen coin, and became a hit. Other commentators say unajū appeared in the Taishō era, and by using lacquered boxes, aimed at appearance of luxury. Unajū is usually pricier than unadon.