Eel is the rich, fatty, fine-grained flesh of snake-like freshwater fish of the genus Anguilla — above all the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) and the European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Catadromous fish that are born far out in the open ocean and grow up in rivers and estuaries, eels store dense intramuscular fat that cooks to a soft, melting, almost buttery flesh. In Japan it is unagi — filleted, steamed and charcoal-grilled as kabayaki, lacquered with a sweet soy-and-mirin tare and laid over rice as unadon, a prized restorative of the hot summer; in Europe it is smoked, jellied or fried. Because raw eel blood is toxic, eel is one fish that is always served cooked.