Fatty
Tuna Eye Socket: Culinary Adventures in Japan (cont.)
“Chigaimasu yo! No, no,
that’s not right. One moment please.” Now we’re getting
somewhere. Miho has reached into her purse and pulled
out an electronic dictionary. She punches the keys,
scrolls, knits her brow, scrolls some more and sounding
a little unsure reveals, “sea cucumber!?”
“Christ! A SEA CUCUMBER! Aren’t
they poisonous?”
I never found out the answer to
this question but since I’m still alive to tell the
tale over a year later, if it was poisonous, it must
have been skillfully prepared. Speaking of poisonous
delicacies requiring skilful preparation, many of
you will have no doubt heard of fugu (puffer-fish).
Chefs who prepare it are required to undergo special
training and are certified under the Japanese government’s
Food Sanitation Law. Fugu restaurants are
usually distinguishable to those unable to read Japanese
by display tanks full of the thick-lipped, bug-eyed
fish, often piled in so thick that they can barely
move (not that they seem to be trying) as they await
certain death. These restaurants offer set menus that
are a celebration of the many ways fugu can be prepared.
Our fugu bonanza featured it marinated, fried,
boiled and, of course, raw. The highlight was the
sashimi, which was sliced so thinly that it was transparent,
allowing the designs on the plate to be visible through
the flesh. The only part of the meal in which the
star ingredient didn’t make an appearance was desert.
Upon trying the appetizer of marinated
cartilaginous fugu skin, I swear I felt a
bit of numbness in my mouth and had an elevated heart
rate. For just a moment I thought I was done for,
ingloriously felled by a puffer fish, but looking
around the table at my happily munching companions
and hearing their approving cries of “oishii desu
ne” (delicious isn’t it) I realized that I was
probably just psyching myself out and kept on eating.
Once I got over my little scare, I found fugu
to be quite tasty, though not so much better than
really fresh red snapper as to justify the expense
(about fifty dollars per person, without drinks, which
I was told was really cheap).
These were just a couple of
many run-ins with unusual Japanese foods. A few times
I found something that I really enjoyed from the first
taste, like the fatty meat that encircles a tuna’s
eye, or tako-wasabi, raw octopus with finely
diced fresh Japanese horseradish. Other foods, I developed
a taste for after repeated exposure. Natto,
the infamous fermented soybeans of the bubbling, stringy
goo and the smell of thrice worn gym socks, belongs
to this category. I think the reason for my initial
aversion to natto was that I tried it mixed
with raw squid and okra, which has to be one of the
slimiest concoctions ever devised. Incidentally, It’s
delicious with spicy kim chee. A couple of
times I was disgusted retroactively by something I
had eaten, like when a friend and I found out after
the fact that we had just downed several morsels of
grilled pig’s heart (we knew we were ordering hearts,
we just thought they belonged to chicken).
If you find yourself in Japan, try everything you
can get your chopsticks on. Eat first; ask questions
later. You may find some unusual things you really
enjoy or, at worst, you’ll come away with a good story
to gross out your more culinary prudish friends with.
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