fugu (河豚 or 鰒; フグ)

According to Wikipedia, the literal translation is "river pig," but we'd normally call it "pufferfish"  or "blowfish" in English.

Its notoriety is based on the chance of death from consuming it.  The fish has poisons running through it, and fugu chefs need to be licensed to prepare fugu dishes, their expertise being in removing the poisonous parts.  It's also known for being quite expensive, but these days a lot of the restaurants raise their own blowfish in fish tanks / aquariums, which helps to keep costs down (as opposed to buying the fish from specialized fugu farms).  At such establishments, a person can have a multi-course fugu meal for about 5000 yen (approx. $50).

I just took my brother out for his first fugu experience.  They say that eating it induces a moderate buzz, and my bro felt it, a kind of light-headedness.  I've eaten fugu four or five times and have never experienced this buzz--although granted, I'm already drinking by the time the fish comes, so maybe the alcohol just drowned out the fugu buzz.

Tonight's meal consisted of:

• fugu skin
• fugu sashimi
• fugu boiled in nabe (a pot)
• rice porridge 
• dessert (ice cream with mochi and azuki beans)

We also had fugu sake (rice wine).  Basically, it's warm sake with fugu fins.  They light it on fire before serving it to you.  It wasn't part of the set course, but we wanted to try it.  To tell the truth, it didn't taste that great, but the sake felt nice going down.


These pictures are from tonight.  The first dish was the appetizer, fugu skin.  

This was followed by fugu sashimi.  You eat it with the greenery, dipping it in the sauce in the small dish.

followed by fugu boiled in a pot.  Amazingly, the pot was made of paper and didn't leak a drop.
If you watch carefully, you'll notice the flesh twitching, as the chefs have just sliced up the fish.  To me, it was a horrific but sort of fascinating part of the experience.  I felt genuinely sorry for those fish. . .

above is the dipping sauce.


And finally, deep-friend fugu:

At the end of the night, we had the fugu sake:

All in all, a pretty nice time, and an experience to remember.  Most people that I've talked to seem to feel that fugu itself doesn't have much a distinctive taste, but I think that's what makes it so versatile.  All these different ways of preparing it worked out well, and the texture was quite delectable.