So on the Saturday of the Osaka trip, we ended up meeting a couple other colleagues and had a full fugu course experience. If you didn't know, fugu is a poisonous puffer-fish where it requires certification to even sell at an establishment. The incorrect preparation would kill the consumer via neurotoxins. Done correctly, and there should be a small numbing sensation that's desirable (I guess like szechuan pepper corn?)
Because of the safety measures and 'risks' involved, it has a reputation of being a luxury pricy item, especially if it is the wild variety. For instance, infamous video game series Yakuza uses fugu to convey the antagonist's wealth and demeanor as someone who lives on the edge.
So even with the statistics and the levels of assurances the Japanese government need to provide, will your humble writer survive this fugu experience unscathed?
While the fugu sashimi above is the canonical experience, my actual first taste of fugu in this trip was in my sake! Some of the fins were roasted and put in my sake to have some of the flavors incorporated. They even torched the sake for a second just to help with this! I wish they asked if I was ready to take a picture though.... Anyways, it was a unique experience having savory sake with a bit of a fish aftertaste.
The preparation of fugu I've actually had before was with some of the fish meat fried karaage style. The most dangerous part of these cuts are the pieces of fish bones inside the meat. These cuts are typically away from the liver or poison sacks so this is definitely part of the accessible section. In terms of taste, I want you to take every fish you've ever eaten and combine it together and remove everything that's unique about fishes like golden eye 007 snapper (金目鯛) or salmon. It tastes like the most generic fish. Then if you fried it, you have the thing depicted below, maybe with a squeeze of lemon.
Like the filets, many of the pieces below for the grilled items also are away from the poisonous regions so they don't require any skill or expertise (sans the removal of the poisonous parts). Especially near the bones, these pieces had some flavor. I think it's more for the texture for the squishier items but you're just eating it to have something to dip into your ponzu.
One unique item is the 白子/shirako or milt. Aside from creamy, I can't remember what this actually tastes like but it definitely is on the exotic side.
Next was the nabe, with the pieces above, where you have the pieces of fugu with tofu, veggies, and fugu fish stock cubes with golden leaves, to add to the air of luxury (I guess...) While the broth had some essence of fish, it was just a classic fish nabe with a nice ponzu sauce to dip your meat and veggies in it. We actually needed a few extra pieces of tofu and veggies to fill us up....
Below is the 'second half' of the nabe where we are filled up with streamed eggs (like egg drop soup?) and rice as our closer (〆 or shi-me). It's just an efficient way to fill up while still savoring the dashi. If you like the taste of fish with a light seasoning, this is your cup of nabe.
Overall, I'm glad I can say that I've had fugu but overall, it was a very underwhelming experience. The sashimi we got was only for texture and the taste of ponzu and the taste of fugu is not what one would expect with its reputation of luxury. Maybe our problem was we got the farmed variety (which was almost half the cost...) so if I give this a second chance, I'll need to try the wild variant. Sigh.... I guess I survive unscathed....
Except afterwards, we decided we wanted to drink more and we went to another izakaya to drink a few glasses of sake, some highballs, and go for round two of dinner. To mention some highlights, we had shiokara, cheese covered sake lees, chicken naban, sashimi, and agemochi. Maybe eating this much with the amount of drinking this week was a terrible idea. And yet, I'm here... So maybe I didn't leave unscathed, but at least it wasn't from the fugu.
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