Ingredients: Seaweed, rice, barbecued eel, avocado

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: Growing

Eel lovers totally dig this dish, but there’s not nearly as many eel lovers as there should be out there – especially in North America. 

The Unagi Roll is barbecued eel with a little avocado thrown in to cut the taste and texture with something smooth and sweet, and it’s a heck of a good combo.

Some sushi houses in your local area may vary a touch from this basic core of the dish (like adding cucumber or roe, or even other seafoods), but that tangy eel flavor and the sweet buttery goodness of the avocado are a potent combo.

Ingredients: Seaweed, rice, barbecued eel, cucumber

Preparation: Inside-out 

Popularity: Growing

Like the Anago Roll, the Anakyu Roll has many variations, and is growing in popularity as more and more people grow the cajones needed to stray from the usual US California Roll/Dynamite Roll diet.

Anakyu Roll is basically a Usagi Roll with cucumber added, though from sushi restaurant to sushi restaurant that’s likely to vary a touch.

Basically, for an Anakyu Roll to be good, the barbecued eel has to be primo. An Anakyu Roll with sub-standard eel is like steak tartare with a nasty piece of steak.

Ingredients: Seaweed, rice, barbecued eel (Anago), Japanese parsley (Mitsuba), cucumber

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: Growing

Though a lot of people still won’t try eel, just because it’s not as common to westerners as chicken, there are a growing number of sushi fiends who, while looking to try something different, stumble upon the flavor and texture of one of Japan’s most popular seafoods.

The Anago Roll is basically an eel roll, and as such it can be made many different ways. Some have mayonnaise, some use egg as the outer skin of the roll (as seen in the photo above), which gives it an interesting yellow appearance (especially when topped with gold fish eggs), but really the only thing that you need to make an Anago Roll and Anago Roll is, well, Anago.

Seriously, give it a try. Eel won’t bite… well, as long as it’s barbecued first, anyway.

Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, barbecued eel, avocado, tempura shrimp, burdock root, cucumber, flying fish roe

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: Moderate in the US

Another in the long line of sushi rolls in which decoration on a theme is almost as important as taste, the Dragon Roll tends to come with a slightly higher price tag, but if it’s done right, it’s worth every penny.

The avocado is usually draped across the top of the roll to give a ‘dragon scales’ effect, with the bright orange roe going on top of that to give contrast.

Inside, it’s all good stuff – BBQ eel, crunchy tempura shrimp, and the burdock root/cucumber combo to fill things out.

The Dragon Roll is a bit of a fatty dish, due to the deep-fried tempura, and while some variations might include hot sauce, or chili, to give it a fire-kick, generally at most sushi houses it’s a very mild menu item.

Ingredients: Rice, seaweed, eel, cucumber, avocado, smelt roe

Preparation: Inside-out

Popularity: Moderate

No, it’s not actually made of caterpillars; the caterpillar roll is dressed up to look like an insect by virtue of the green avocado, sesame seeds, and bright red masago (smelt roe) laid across the top.

Inside, it’s unagi (eel) and cucumber, which is a pretty one-dimensional combo, but it’s the good stuff on top that makes this a sushi dish to remember.

Some restaurants take the caterpillar theme to extremes, adding octopus suction cups as eyes, and bizarre additions as legs shooting out the sides… but none of this helps make the dish more palatable.

Just forego the extras and enjoy the meal.