Eating Fugu・（河豚）
By Oli
At 3:50 PM · Monday, 19 January · 2004
To Japan · Life
Recently I went to a local restaurant called Tai・「鯛」 with Miwa and her parents to eat Fugu・（河豚）. The kanji mean “river pig”, and the meat was certainly more like that of an animal, with quite a chewy texture. It’s popular to eat Fugu in the winter in Japan (it’s toxicity is seasonal), and because there’s a chance you might die it’s an expensive delicacy. Fugu innards (especially the ovaries and liver) and to a lesser extent the skin contain tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin which is apparently 1200 times deadlier than cyanide. An adult fugu has enough to kill about 30 people, making it one of the most poisonous marine creatures. The first side-effects of poisoning are tingling and numbness in the mouth within about 30 minutes, followed by nausea, paralysis and death within 24 hours. Even worse, there is no antidote, so about half the cases of fugu poisoning are fatal.
Anori・「安乗」 port in our neighbourhood has the biggest fugu catch in Japan. It’s also apparently the best, and is referred to as Tora・（とら） fugu. Because of this our town (and especially our neighbourhood’s ryokans・（旅館）) are famous for it. It was quite funny to sit in the restaurant around the tora nabe・（鍋） (which has a special name because it’s fugu; tecchiri・（てっちり）), and discuss what would happen if we are poisoned. Takeru・（武） could remember two famous Kabuki・（歌舞伎） actors dying after eating fugu. He said he thought it’s cool to die from fugu poisoning (considering his name kanji is the first half of Bushi・（武士） or samurai this fits ;-) Some people like the tingly feeling from the fugu poison, and I felt it slightly. Thankfully the chef didn’t make any mistakes! We also had fugu sashimi・（刺身） (called tessa・（てっさ）), which is quite famous for being very transparent — you can easily see the plate through it. Other dishes included oysters (deep-fried, baked and raw), sashimi, Tai senbei・（煎餅）, and some side dishes. Apparently I’ll have to try deep-fried fugu sometime — Miwa really likes it.
- The entrance to Tai, the Japanese restaurant where we went to eat fugu. The cloth over the door is called a noren・（のれん）, and is common for Japanese-style shops and restaurants.
- Nabe-style food involves everyone helping to cook and serving themselves. This leads to lots of chopstick action! Everyone is getting started by filling the nabe pot.
- It’s easy to see the plate through the tessa sashimi. Also pictured are deep-fried oysters and some bones from the tecchiri nabe.
- Because we were putting chunks of whole fugu into the nabe, we ended up with a lot of bones. They looked quite unusual, and some of them are not really ‘fish-like’.
You can see more photos of the restaurant on their website.
While I enjoyed the experience, fugu hasn’t become a favourite. I found it to be fairly tasteless (no doubt a reflection on my lack of refinement ;-). It’s also pretty expensive; we paid about 33,000 yen for four people (presently about $310USD, or $470NZD). This was partially because we got the expensive tora nabe. Also seeing the chunks of fugu with their distinctively patterned skin ready to go into the nabe pot reminded me too much of snorkeling — fugu are very inquisitive, and I often swam with large shoals of them. They are also pretty comical. I heard that a fugu fin in a shot of hot sake・（酒） is popular, especially with the men who think that eating fugu will make them more virile (something I find amusingly asian).
Here’s some more information about fugu:
- Deflating a Poisonous Pufferfish Legend by Nicholas D. Kristof
- An interesting article about how eating fugu is not really dangerous anymore.
- Fugu poisoning, firsthand
- Teiko Inahata describes her experience of fugu poisoning — scary!
- Destroy All Monsters; Fugu: The Deadly Delicacy
- A short article about fugu and Japan.
- About.com guide to fugu cuisine
- Another short article about fugu, including the fugu dish names.
Discussion...
- 1. Comment by Daphne · 10 Feb, 2004 · 10:28 PM
Do you have to sign a paper that says that the restaurant will not be responsible if something happens to you?
- 2. Comment by Rudolf · 13 Feb, 2004 · 2:40 PM
No. I had the same fugu sashimi dish, the one with the chrysanthemum, and I didn’t even learn it was fugu until after I’d eaten it and somebody pointed it out to me.
The chefs know what they’re doing and it’s safe. The deadly accidents that do happen involve people who insist on having some of the poison, which is considered a delicacy because, apparently, it tickles your tongue or gives you a buzz, or whatever. The kabuki actor who recently died of fugu poisoning was one of those cases.
The chefs who serve the poison are in breach of their licence, so they only do it as a personal favour to a valued patron, or so I’m told. I wonder if they ever get persecuted for manslaughter.
- 3. Comment by zi · 10 Dec, 2004 · 8:32 AM
fugu is known to be rather bland and it’s not even all that interesting texturally (if that’s a word). fugu nowadays, is rather safe to eat, and you can get fugu sashimi in most decently large supermarkets, but i don’t see the point. it’s sliced paper thin and knowing it doesn’t have any flavor, and depoisoned, there’s no reason to spend money to eat such an undelicious fish. the poison is concentrated in the liver, and the danger of dying from poison is largely exaggerated. some restaurants serve fugu hire-zake (cup of cake with fugu fin in it), and other fugu treats.
