more often than not they think about sushi, but not me.

Whenever I leave Japan what I crave the most

is without a doubt unagi.

(lively hip hop music)

So please imagine my excitement

now that we have traveled down to what I am calling

the unagi capital of Japan, Nagoya.

- If you ask anybody living in Japan

where the best eel is,

they're absolutely gonna say Nagoya.

And it's literally an hour and a half away by train.

Every time we've come to Nagoya

we've actually had Una Dong

and we've smashed their specialty Hitsumabushi.

- Hitsumabushi! - And we've just never

ever shared it with you guys.

- We're gonna do this professionally

because we're professionals-- - Yes, calm.

- And I'm gonna contain my excitement as much as I can.

(lively techno music)

(lively upbeat music)

- Okay, we just left Nagoya station

and we're headed to a fishmonger called Nakasho

and they've been in the business for over 90 years;

which is a crazy amount of time to be mongering things.

And the question we have,

the very professional foodie question we have

is can you monger other things?

Like can you be a octopus monger?

- Is there an apple monger?

- A berry monger? - How do I start

monging things? - Money monger.

- Like what does it mean to mong?

- To monger-- - Have I ever monged

anything in my life?

- Can now I mong?

These are the important questions, we'll contemplate them.

(peaceful techno music)

- My name is Higashl. (speaking in foreign language)

- Wow. - That's a big boy.

- Oh my gosh, wow. - Big boy.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Okay, are these the blue ones?

- The blue ones are the good ones.

(muffled talking)

- Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Oh totally, moshi moshi, I got it, yeah.

(peaceful techno music)

(loud water splashing)

(speaking in foreign language)

(peaceful techno music)

- I'm feeling very happy.

We right now are at Unagi Yondaime Kikukawa.

And that's a very hard word for me to remember, but I did it

because, unagi. - Unagi.

10 points to Gryffindor if anybody knows what that's from.

Speaking of which, don't I look so Gryffindorian today?

- You look like a very stern teacher.

- I'm here to learn and teach

and to spread the word of unagi.

- I feel like a little intimidated,

like you're gonna walk around with like a ruler stick

and I'm gonna get smacked if I get a fact incorrectly.

- Well, I mean that could happen,

I could just start eating your unagi instead.

- I don't have to worry about it because I know so much

about unagi now.

I am the one that is hyper informed.

- Okay, let me hear about this.

- I read Kafka on the Shore.

I don't remember that much about it,

except for three things. - Okay.

- One, Johnny Walker kills a lot of cats.

- Okay. - Two, they have to flip

a really heavy stone. - Okay.

- And number three, the main character really likes to eat

unagi once a month as a treat.

And that part resonated with me so much.

- 'Cause you wanted to have it once a month as a treat?

- The rest of the plot, I don't know what happens,

how it ends, I don't remember.

But the unagi I remember.

- Excuse me, I thought I was suppose to be learning

facts about unagi but all I'm learning is that--

- Cultural references, cultural references.

- Okay. - So this is the culture

first, you'll get the facts next.

Unagi facts. - Yes, you remember

at the beginning I was talking about,

can you say it for me?

- Hitsumabushi. - It feels different

when you say it somehow.

- It's not hitsayobushi, it's Hitsumabushi.

- So hitsumabushi is Nagoya's jam.

And basically instead of just serving the eel

on top of the rice with the sauce

and just like eating that,

they serve it with all the little sides parts,

so you can kind of enjoy it in four different ways;

which I really like because sometimes we talk about

how we get a little bit the same thing

over and over again.

- For real, it's exciting

because when you get, in Tokyo, eel,

then it'll just be sauce and rice, eat it.

When you're halfway through, you still know

what the rest of the meal is gonna taste like,

but here they keep on changing things up

and keeping you so excited, like I am, for all the eel.

Unagi fact, another thing that makes Nagoya style unagi

unique is that they don't steam it before grilling.

Usually in Tokyo, they will steam it first

and then finish it on the grill, not here,

straight up grill, just like a pro.

Not that you're not a pro in Tokyo,

but this is...

- I'm gonna let you keep circling your way out of this.

The other thing that I find exciting

is that every place has their own tare, their own sauce.

The kind of way they go for yakitori

and we have different sauce or salt to choose from,

it's never the same in every place,

there is like a huge ginormous vat of sauce back there

that's just kind of like gathering flavor

and getting more delicious

as time goes on. - Oh my gosh.

(lively funk music)

It smells delicious.

I gotta laugh.

One person laughed at my joke,

one person laughed at my joke.

I have a feeling I'm gonna be scolded by the teacher

for talking too much in class.

Pick me, I have so much more to say.

(smooth jazz techno music)

Oh baby, I'm so ready.

(speaking in foreign language)

Wow. - Yes, yeah.

- This is amazing. (speaking in foreign language)

- You know what we have to do, right?

- Oh please. - We have to hold back.

And we have to take 1,000 sexy food porn shots of this.

Brace yourself Simon, no bad Simon.

(smooth jazz funk techno music)

- Oh my gosh, what a beautiful beautiful bowl.

(speaking in foreign language)

So there's a specific way you're suppose to eat this.

You're suppose to divide it into four.

The first time, you're just suppose to try it on it's own

to see what it tastes like.

So you're gonna use your little tiny wooden paddle

to kinda scoop out a little bit of it.

And then the second time around

is when you can kinda start changing the flavor

a little bit, but we're gonna get there.

First, we're just gonna try it in its purest form.

- Just try it in its pure form.

(peaceful classic music)

It's my favorite seafood in the world.

- It's so so fluffy and nothing about this is fishy.

I think that can be intimidating for people

because they feel like it's a type

of an ocean taste, it's not.

- No, this is the meatiest seafood.

It tastes more like meat than it does like seafood.

- It does for sure.

- It's so soft, it's got a little bit of crisp on it,

kinda like a really good crispy chicken wing.

- I think Nagoya has gt that down

because they've got the crispy chicken wing jam

and they know how to keep it moist on the inside

and crispy on the outside.

That's the real tough part

because eel is such a thin piece of meat once you filet it.

Once you start grilling it on that high heat,

you could just use up all the fat,

crisp it up and it could be nothing.

But wow, its just got such a nice color to it.

How do you feel about the tare as well?

- It's not over powering.

- And not too sweet, right?

- Yeah, that's exactly it.

You go to some places and it's just so very very sweet

and kind of like the stickiness of the crunch

kind of makes it taste like candy a bit.

This does not have that, just so savory.

And light, and so light.

Like I'm just like, oops, I've already finished

and you're behind me, oopsie.

My gosh Simon, you're moving so slowly,

it's like you don't even like eel.

It really seems to me like if you continue this way,

I'll just have to eat both of our meals.

(loud bell ringing)

- Round two. - Round two.

I'll be honest I put some wasabi on

and then I lost it somewhere so we're gonna go for it.

- You're gonna get a wasabi bomb.

So for the second dish,

first time you're suppose to have it pure.

Second time, this is where you could add the toppings

like the wasabi and the seaweed and the green onion.

It doesn't need it,

but it just gives you a little bit of variety

if you want some.

- I mean if you think about it,

it's not like you can go to a place in North America,

order a hamburger and ask for it four different ways,

it's pretty unique, right.

- That is a very good analogy,

unless you get four different burgers.

- I actually think the seaweed is incredibly mashing

with this right now.

The toasted nuttiness of the nori on the outside,

it's actually mega-enhancing all the flavors

of the eel right now.

- I do feel like this is a very different bowl now.

Before, I tasted a lot more of the smoke and the char.

Here, I have so many more things popping around.

- I felt like the sweetness was nearly muted.

The green onions and a little tiny kick of the wasabi;

which you could barely taste by the way, it wasn't hot.

- No. - And then for me,

like I said, I feel like the nori was the winner.

It just made all the crispy edges kinda pop out

and taste more nutty.

Like when you have that kind of crispy nut flavor

rather than having like a sweet

saucy flavor. - Exactly.

- Oh my gosh, and we still have a third way to try it.

And then we have whatever way we want after that.

- We're not even halfway done.

- I know, are you happy with our journey to Nagoya?

For you to be trying your most favorite thing ever?

- I'm happy with my journey to Japan,

with my journey in life.

- Oh, I know what's happening right now.

We all know what's happening right now.

So many times you can question yourself.

Have I made the right choices in life?

Have I, should I have done this?

- Continue on. - Should I have done that?

But when you have something this good,

then you realize every one of your memories is footsteps

leading up to here, realize you've done the right thing.

Please, don't you.

(loud duck quacking) (dramatic music)

- Keep talking. - This is what is called