The frisson of danger that accompanies eating fugu has secured it a special status among diners and chefs, who must train for at least three years before attempting to qualify for a license. A panel of experts from Japan’s food safety commission is to rule on the safety of Saga’s farmed fugu by the end of the year. The liver lobby, led by the prefecture’s governor, Yoshinori Yamaguchi, is not giving up. “I would never serve the liver or other poisonous parts, no matter how many reassurances I’d been given,” says Takahashi, who will return next week to take the official test. One of the biggest fears is that wild and poisonous fugu will find their way into cordoned off breeding pens and mix with their non-toxic counterparts. “There is no absolute guarantee of safety.” “If the prefecture’s proposal is approved, many consumers will mistakenly believe that puffer fish liver is safe to eat, resulting in more accidents,” Yuichi Makita, vice-chairman of the restaurant association, told the Asahi Shimbun. Rearing the fish on food that is toxin-free removes the risk, or so the theory goes.īut owners of hundreds of fugu restaurants in Saga have warned that relaxing the law could end up killing diners. The poison in the fugu is produced when the fish feed on poisonous starfish, snails and other creatures. If digested, the neurotoxin causes numbness around the mouth, followed by paralysis and death by asphyxiation. With help from a local fisheries firm and university researchers, the officials claim they have perfected a method of farming the fish that ensures the liver contains not a single trace of tetrodotoxin. “If any poison finds its way on to the edible parts, it would be disastrous.”ĭespite the risks, officials in Saga prefecture, western Japan, are calling for an end to the decades-old ban on serving the liver – considered by some to be the tastiest part of the fish – in restaurants. Bitter orange or sudachi citrus fruit play valued supporting roles with their seasonal fragrance.“The hardest part is ensuring the parts that can be eaten are absolutely clean,” says Takahashi, one of dozens of chefs being put through their paces at a culinary school in Tokyo in preparation for a test to obtain their fugu licence. It may be artfully modelled on a chrysanthemum or a peony or arranged auspiciously like a crane as a wish for long life. Cut with a dedicated knife, the raw fugu is sliced so thinly that the pattern on the plate can be seen through it. ![]() Usuzukuri (thinly-sliced sashimi) is where the skill of the fugusashi (fugu sashimi) artisan truly shines. Exceptionally versatile, fugu can be served as jellied broth (nikogori) or sashimi, or it can be grilled, simmered or fried. Letting them sit overnight enhances the fish’s umami as well as the pleasing suppleness characteristic of fugu. The secret to the delicious taste of fugu is that it is less fatty than other white-fleshed fish, with higher concentrations of the umami components glutamic acid and inosinic acid. Fugu is a star on menus not only at speciality shops but also at restaurants ranging from kappo (counter-style restaurants serving traditional Japanese cuisine) to ryotei (traditional Japanese restaurants). A proverb advises to start eating torafugu when the bitter orange gains colour and to stop when the rapeseed flower blooms. The season for torafugu (Japanese pufferfish or tiger pufferfish) is said to be from the autumn equinox to the spring equinox. The practice of eating fugu soon spread nationwide. The prohibition on eating fugu was lifted during the Meiji period (1868–1912 ), when the prime minister at that time, Ito Hirobumi, ate fugu in Shimonoseki and became so enamoured with it that he began discussions with the governor of Yamaguchi Prefecture to lift the restriction. The desire to enjoy the delicious flavour of fugu despite the dangers gave rise to a saying about perilous predilections: ‘I want to eat fugu, but I value my life’. Despite this edict, fugu remained stubbornly popular with everyone from the common folk to intellectuals, even appearing in haiku and ukiyo-e prints. During the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568–1600), however, the de-facto ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598 ), banned the consumption of fugu because so many people kept getting poisoned by it. Fugu bones have been unearthed in shell mounds from Japan’s Jomon period (approximately 14,000 to 1000 BC ). We know that people have been eating fugu for thousands of years. People have been eating fugu for a long time.
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