Fugu, the Poisonous Sushi

Last night a friend who is visiting from the states for work and I decided to search out an adventurous meal. We settled on Fugu, which is the Japanese word for pufferfish. For those of you who don’t know, pufferfish produce an extremely lethal neurotoxin (called tetrodotoxin) that has no known antidote. The poison basically paralyzes your muscles while you are still conscious; eventually you’ll be unable to breath, but you’ll be completely aware of what is happening to you until you asphyxiate to death. Needless to say, this is both a dangerous dish to prepare and, of more concern to me, can be a dangerous dish to consume. To prepare fugu you have to be trained and licensed, and all of the fish that isn’t safe to eat must be carefully disposed of. In fact, before all of these regulations were put into effect, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to die because they were going through a restaurant’s garbage in search of recyclables and they happened upon something sharp that had also been next to fugu remains.

So why would anyone want to eat this stuff? Well, it is considered a delicacy in Japan for a couple of reasons. Some people claim to love it because of the taste. Others surely enjoy fugu simply because it can be a dangerous experience. It’s like playing a game of chicken with your food. And occasionally (about 45 times per year in Japan), the fugu wins. Seriously. But for the most part, all of these regulations have resulted in fugu being extremely safe to eat when prepared by a trained professional.

So anyway, first we were tasked with finding a restaurant that would serve us fugu. I was a little worried about this, because fugu is highly seasonal, and it is currently out of season. But I needn’t have worried, because the first fugu restaurant we went to had a huge tank full of large fugu swimming around for passersby to see. Success!

Since we were taking a chance on our lives, we decided we should at least go out in style. We decided to start with a couple of bottles of delicious cold sake and then move on to a huge 7-course fugu meal. The presentation of the meal was pretty amazing. Basically, they brought out an appetizer and a couple of different sauces, and then a big bowl of water that they boiled on a burner in the middle of our table. Then, they brought out a huge plate full of freshly cut raw fugu, tofu, and vegetables. The fugu was so fresh that we could still see the raw meat twitching. That meat, the veggies, and fugu skin all went into the boiling water to cook while we ate our first few courses. In addition to the appetizer, we were treated to delicious fugu sashimi (raw fugu), sliced so thin that you could see through it, as well as fried fugu (which tastes quite a bit like fried crappie, but crappie is full of tiny bones and fugu isn't.) We were also served a rice porridge and, for dessert, fresh fruit.
So what’s the verdict? My favorite was by far the fugu sashimi, and while the flavor was subtle, it was definitely delicious. My favorite thing about the sashimi is that, in addition to the flavor, you get this very odd feeling on your tongue when you eat it… it’s like a tingling, numbing sensation. There is a lot of debate in the scientific community about what causes this. Most people who eat fugu say that this is a result of traces of the neurotoxin that you’re consuming. However, most scientists say that if you have consumed enough tetrodotoxin to feel anything, it’s already too late for you and you’re about to die; they then chalk up this tingling feeling to a number of other causes, from general nervousness to group hysteria. I don’t know what causes the feeling, but both my friend and I experienced it, and I think it’s real. In fact, I even felt it on my lips at one point.


Ladies first! Like a true gentleman, I let Marylinn taste-test the fugu before I have my first bite.
Anyway, the entire experience was really fun. The fugu was tasty, and I would definitely do it again. There are many different fugu dishes to try, and rumor is that the most dangerous dishes are also the most delicious. (For instance, fugu liver has the highest amount of toxin, and was banned in Japan years ago, but people apparently love it.) Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on how you look at it) fugu isn’t cheap, so it’s not something I could afford on a regular basis.