Eating Puffer Fish

It’s like the biggest dare in your life: EATING PUFFER FISH! Some people live dangerously by getting hooked into eating this kind of fish. The ethnicity or exotic feel of doing this may even cost your life if you’re not too careful. So, how on Earth will some people, even in the richest or poorest country, try eating it as a way of life?

Here in the Philippines, we call puffer fish as butete or big bellied fish or porcupine fish because of its features. Even, some of those who have  eaten puffer fish were poisoned, they still crave to eat it or when there's no catch at all or no alternative meal for a moment.

Tricky villagers who lost their chickens or eaten by their nosy neighbors devised a way to get even. Neighbors committing theft were killed by the poison of the puffer fish when they again tried stealing chickens from their irate neighbors. Their secret: they injected the poison on the skin of the chicken but it will be harmless to the chicken. Once, eaten by the theft, they will be poisoned by it automatically. Whoa! Better be careful when you visit a fishing village here in the country. People know a lot on how to deal with the secrets of the sea.

Sashimi is a tiny slices or fish fillets being eaten raw mostly by Japanese. You can serve it with soy sauce mixed with wasabi (a hot condiment just like peppers). But, fugu sashimi? OMG!!! Am I nuts to dare the challenge?

If not prepared properly, you can die of oxygen deprivation or asphyxia when you eat poison-laden puffer fish. There's no permanent cure for it but to ventilate the victim and observe their blood pressure because the poison targets the respiratory and circulatory systems of the patient.

When I was on the radio, I reported a fish poisoning incident when they eat fugu fish. Luckily, all of them survived, but they promised groggily that they will never try eating puffer fish again.

But in Japan, it is the most dangerous fish to eat in their cuisine. Although, equipped with expertise in preparing the dish, restaurant owners will not leave their guests dying, I guess. They're just crazy enough to include it in their menu, so that they can attract brave customers to try that kind of exotic dish or specialty.

Fugu is the Japanese word for it is and is also a Japanese dish prepared from the meat of puffer fish (normally species of Takifugu, Lagocephalus, or Sphoeroides) or porcupine fish of the genus Diodon.

 No one will dare the emperor of Japan to eat raw flesh of fugu. It's for his own safety. Right? Maybe, If I visit the palace and meet the emperor and talk to him face to face, I will ask him if he can try eating it, regardless of his status.

Well, according to historians and archeologists,eating fugu in Japan is a way of life that dates back for more than 2, 000 years ago. It continued in the shogunate eras until today. the consumption of fugu was prohibited in many provinces or prefectures, but still, fishermen tried cultivating it.

As of 2008, advances in fugu research and farming have allowed some farmers to mass produce non-toxic fugu. Researchers surmised that fugu’s tetrodotoxin came from eating other animals that had the tetrodotoxin-laden bacteria, and developed immunity over time. Many farmers now are producing ‘poison-free’ fugu by keeping the fugu away from tetrodotoxin-laden bacteria. Utsuki, a town in Oita, became famous for selling non-poisonous fugu. No one has been poisoned eating it.

So far, so good. Have you tried eating it?