lingqi's Journal: December 8th, 2003

December 8th, 2003 (7:06pm)

Now. Fugu was good.

Ok, maybe first of all: I am alive.

Anyway - Fugu was good but I don't think it was so good that it was worth dying for. That said though, it was in fact really really good. The sashimi was so so (it's probably to date the most chewy sashimi I have ever had), and the fried version was just alright, but the nabe (pot / wok?) was very delicious.

I didn't try the fugu-fin hot-sake; abstaining from alcohol and all.

It's hard to describe fugu meat. usually fish has the melts-in-your-mouth quality, or at least the fall-apart-therein quality, but fugu is hard in a very good way, not quite duplicated in any other food I have had; that except maybe snake, but I havn't had it for a while so I can not be too sure.

Shiro-ko was also excellent (I am thinking shiro-ko is fugu-testes, if anybody knows better please prove me wrong). It fell apart very easily - in fact on the "easy to break" scale it was equivalent to about a raw egg yolk. But it stays intact after you break it. The texture is that of very tender tofu, with, of course, the distinctive fish-testes flavor - which was not offensive in any way and in fact quite good (from an absolutely pure gustatory point of view), after overcoming the mental block of "I am eating fish testes."

Besides that, I am not quite sure what to comment about it besides that it was certainly worth a try, if nothing else the shaky feeling you get when you realize that your lips are tingling / numbing (first signs of an oncoming doom if the chef left enough of it in there). The part to put ones mind to rest is this, though: all fugu chefs are required to go through certification in the last stage of which they have to eat their own preparations - along with years of training (3 is the number I hear, but probably often more). So just the fact that the chef is currently alive is a very good indication that his skills passed the necessary tests. I can hardly think of any other coursework that has an exam that is nearly so... strict.

That said, of course it's possible that you'd get a chef who wasn't certified - but then you can get hit by a bus on the road too, no sense in worrying about it.

I am, of course, saying this because I have survived - I was actually not nearly this bold during the dinner nights before...

I was at a -Y"Ni (bounenkai) last Wednesday

[ObviousGuy]

I had some shirako in an egg-roll type thing. I had an idea what it was, but wanted to eat it before I heard what it was. It's really not the worst thing you can eat, but it's up there.

bleah

Japanese and eating odd food

[KNicolson]

One thing that gets me with a lot of Japanese telly programs in foreign coutries (or even in Japan!) is when they turn up their noses and make "how can you eat that!" noises about food. They eat fish googlies, and seafood freshly killed (or not quite dead) still wriggling in reflex actions, yet often won't touch things that I would class as no less unappetising in presentation - fried insects come to mind, for instance.

Re:Japanese and eating odd food

[lingqi]

As it was explained to me it's a "i have known it since I was little" thing. I guess that's true enough. I guess it's simply a matter of not realizing the stuff they eat here are considered very much beyond off-limits in some other cultures.

Re:Japanese and eating odd food

[Ichijo]

I went to a store once somewhere in Shizuoka-ken where they had (buttered?) crickets packed in styrofoam the way you'd find ground beef. So I guess someone over there eats fried insects! (Don't know who, though.)

fugu.. how much did you pay for it?

[abhisarda]

.... [destroy-all-monsters.com].

Re:fugu.. how much did you pay for it?

[lingqi]

12,000 yen for the whole thing; Got some ankimo and oysters for appetizers; the whole dinner was around 15,000 yen. Not too bad. you get stuffed with so much food.