Thursday, 19 March 2009

Fugu - the Japanese Puffer Fish, so ugly it's cute.


Do you know any delicacies in your country?
There are amazing delicacies in the world.
Those foods are often looks grotesque, smelly and even risky.

To take an instance, insects are quite common.
Originally, they might had been an essential nourishing food as good protein source for those who are in poverty or starvation, and gradually they got into the habit.

Another example is poisonous fish, called puffer fish which is quite popular in Japan
What they call Fugu contains tetrodotoxin which could kill a person at once with a very small amount.
To serve this fish, Fugu license is necessarily for the chef. They've got to divide all parts of Fugu's body into edible and poisonous.
Sashimi is the most popular way to eat it. Every chef slice the flesh so thin to be transparent that the design of serving dish could see through it and form shape of a chrysanthemum.

I have experience in eating Fugu in my youth without knowing about the risk and the chef had my life in his hands.
Now, I'm not sure if I would go to Fugu restaulant again, and yet, I'm sure I couldn't put my chopsticks down in front of beautiful translucent chrysanthemum formed on a tasteful dish.

Kyouko

1 comment:

  1. Looks like this is how to do it properly:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBc8e7fkc6E

    ReplyDelete

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