Fugu ふぐ or 鰒
On my way to and from Waseda University I pass the above restaurant which serves a variety of fugu (pufferfish) dishes. Fugu can kill you. Of course, if you are a fan of the Simpsons, you already know that. Hence, there aren’t many places that serve fugu. In fact, this is the only restaurant with fugu on the menu that I have ever seen. To serve fugu a chef must pass a test after learning, in a process that requires several years, how to correctly cut the fish so it won’t kill someone. Even then most fail the test.
If you can read Japanese, click on the above photo to see the menu in more detail. Fugu dishes start at just 600 yen (less than $10) for 煮こごり (fugu soup I think), but most are much more. Raw fugu (sashimi), for instance, costs 3,500 yen. I believe that is a fugu (or its skin anyway) wearing the hat in the picture.
I’ll have to try some fugu, and live to tell you about it, at this place one of these days.
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October 24th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I do hope you live to tell the story! Be careful…
October 25th, 2009 at 2:07 am
I lvoed the previous blog with the second lot of pictures from Ueno Park. How do the chefs know they have failed the test??? Do the examiners risk their lives trying it??? very interesting though! I remmebered the simpsons episode about it all!.
anyhow I love your blog – im a random reader from Auustralia desparately trying to learn Japanese for the first time. Im dying to head to Japan!
October 25th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Here is more on the test: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu#Regulations It looks like part of the test is written. Hmmmmm….
October 25th, 2009 at 11:13 am
I tried fugu once, somewhere north. Didn’t actually like it very much.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:23 am
My Japanese teacher once told me that she personally knew a few people who died from fugu poisoning. Kinda makes me don’t want to try it, but then again I’m very curious about how it would taste.