101 Things #17 - Lethal Fish Supper

Humans are omnivores (if we wish to be) and most of us eat a wide range of foods. Some like to eat anything digestible and the more dangerous, the better. Naturally, these foods make it on to bucket lists of things to eat before you die. I, in turn, have no wish to put myself in the position that one of these will be the last thing I do eat before I die and hence have added to my own anti-bucket list 101 Things I Refuse To Do Before I Die
 

Eat Fugu

as, for example, enthusiastically discussed on the website Soranews24.

The fugu fish (also known as the puffer fish) is an unpleasant little bastard (if I may use unparliamentary language for a moment) and stores a vicious poison called tetrodotoxin in its internal organs. Eating the fish in a restaurant that has taken insufficient care to remove all traces of these is asking for paralysis and asphyxiation, plus some other side effects, one of which is the realisation that you are likely to be leaving the restaurant without settling your bill and therefore debt collectors will start sending your executors dunning letters; nor will you be able to leave a tip but perhaps under the circumstances the waiters will understand.

Preparing and eating the fish yourself is suicide. Naturally the Japanese, aspects of whose culture will always baffle those of us brought up in Europe, are fascinated by eating fugu and taking the risk, some even deliberately ingesting tiny amounts of the poison to experience the thrill of, well, dying, I suppose. For the rest of us - let this story "Family dinner of deadly pufferfish" be a sobering reminder.

Tasty looking or what?
Pic: Daily Express

 Funnily enough, people who have tasted fugu, as served by those chefs licenced to serve it*, tend to say it doesn't taste of much anyway. It is served, like all sushi dishes, raw.

I think I can happily pass up the chance of blowing up my digestive system and, anyway, I don't much care for sushi. I mean, if you're going to serve me something toxic, let's at least have it hot, with chips.

-&-&-

 *Chefs wishing to serve fugu must serve a three year apprenticeship and pass exams. One of the possible consequences of failing the exam is said to be death (Of the examiner or the student, I wonder?). How do they manage during tutorials? Perhaps they do them side by side with people taking the examinations to join the Japan Ambulance Service and one or two doing the rigorous Advanced Undertaking course.