Print   Close

Fugu: Do you dare?

One man’s delicacy is another man’s stomachache.
But what about a delicacy that can kill? 

by Patrick Totty

There are delicacies and there are delicacies. Many of the foods that bring a smile or moan of delight to some people bring retches to others. The thought of cheese sickens as many people as the thought of burying an egg in special clay, ”cooking” it through  enzymatic action, then eating it straight out of the shell.

But nobody dies from their pet delicacies.

Well, almost nobody. The exception is Japan, where the food cult that has grown up around the poisonous fugu puffer fish has become one of the obligatory stopping places on the road to Japanese machohood. The flesh of the fugu is wondrously tasty, but the liver is poisonous – so poisonous that each one packs enough punch to kill 30 people in a matter of seconds.

Throw in a few more complications: The ovaries of the female fugu are poisonous, too, and hermaphroditism tends to run in the family! Plus, there are 20 varieties of fugu to choose among. 

Supposedly the danger is mitigated by superbly trained chefs who specialize in cutting away the dread parts while preserving the appearance and tastiness of the fish. But, accidents happen. In some cases, an informed chef will warn eaters not to partake but they’ll insist on doing so anyway. In 1958, a particularly bad year for the fugu eaters cult, 176 Japanese diners took their last bites ever. In other cases, try as he might, a chef misses paring away a fatal strip of fugu flesh by perhaps only millimeters. 

All of this is quite legal. The Japanese, like any other sovereign people, are fond of their peculiar institutions. They have no desire to eliminate the delicious danger of fugu eating. So, the next time you turn your head at the thought of some delicacy that offends your taste, think of how much worse it would be if the merest sliver of it, cut slightly the wrong way, could kill you.