All eating is an act of trust; when you eat fugu, it’s just that the stakes are higher.
LIGAYA MISHAN
American-born restaurant critic and food writer
The New York Times
Passions, Pleasures, and Pufferfish
Passions and pleasures of the cultured palate often go unappreciated by the large, gray masses of humanity. Tastes that entice some repulse others because of differences in lifestyles and mores, breeding and fashion. Few food fads, however, have the grave or immediate consequences of those hardy (or foolhardy, depending on one’s perspective) souls who worship and lionize the taste of pufferfish, or fugu, served up raw.
Most often associated with Japanese culinary culture (though also served up in Korea, China, and some South Asian kitchens), there are several species of edible pufferfish (or blowfish), but the most prized is the torafugu, or tiger pufferfish.
Sushi Gone Wrong!
So, what’s wrong with a bite of sushi? Ordinarily nothing, except that this little flopper, when improperly prepared, is very poisonous. In fact, fugu is laced with tetrodotoxin—a neurotoxin 275 time more lethal than cyanide and deadlier than arsenic or anthrax. There is no antidote for it. Paralysis sets in first followed by a death which can take a few, brief minutes or leave the diner, who is fully aware of what is happening but unable to move, lingering for as long as six torturous hours until succumbing to asphyxiation.
Torafugu is not only the most prized member of the fugu family but the most poisonous as well. Aficionados consider the liver to be the tastiest part though, you guessed it, also the most lethal. So deadly, in fact, that serving the liver in restaurants has been banned by Japan since 1984. Fatal amounts of tetrodotoxin can also be found in the fish’s inner organs, ovaries, eyes, and skin.
That Toxic Tingle Doesn’t Come Cheap
Whether food lore or fact, word has it that that some chefs intentionally leave a trace of the toxin when serving up fugu—just enough to bring a tingling to the customer’s lips and mouth, along with the rush that comes with the prospect of this being the diner’s final meal.
Fugu Regulations and Licensing: Do NOT Try This at Home!
In modern Japan the peak of fugu deaths was in 1958 with 176 reported fatalities. It is the only food legally forbidden to be served to the Emperor of Japan. Granted, the numbers of such deaths have fallen drastically over time. (Globally, far more people die annually from eating bad oysters than poorly prepared fugu.) Since 1958, Japan’s fugu chefs have been required to earn a license to prepare and sell the poisonous pufferfish. An arduous two- to three-year apprenticeship is followed by an exam process consisting of a written test, a fish-identification test, and a practical test—which includes preparing the fugu within less than 20 minutes. Only about 35 percent of applicants pass.
In Japan, where hi-end fugu is still a delicacy, diners can pay $200 per person for a complete fugu meal, and 10,000 tons of the fish are harvested each year. While sale is forbidden in the European Union, it has been legal in the United States since 1989, though less than two-dozen restaurants have acquired the federal license required in order to featurefugu on their menus and the vast majority of those are in New York City.
from Ian Makay’s Food for Thought: The Pleasures of the Table: Primi Piatti
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