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Dr. Bortrum
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06/23/2004
Forgiving Fugu
*** See notice about site at end of this article.
This will be a very short column inasmuch as I’ve been in
Pennsylvania for the past week attending my 60th high school
class reunion and visiting my wife’s relatives. Neither activity
lends itself to spare time for column writing. However, there
was an item in the news recently that bears on a subject we’ve
covered in a past column (1/30/01).
That column dealt with interesting dishes in Japan such as hornet
juice and fugu. Fugu is a type of blowfish or pufferfish that is
prized in culinary circles in Japan. There’s a slight downside to
ordering this dish, however. If you’re tempted to try fugu, be
sure that the chef is a highly trained, reputable expert in the
proper preparation of the dish. If he is not, there’s a chance that
you won’t leave the restaurant alive!
Fugu contains a poison that concentrates in the ovaries, liver and
intestines. The chef must be trained in the proper removal of
these organs and the techniques for ensuring no poison remains
that could have a deadly effect. According to an article by Mari
Yamaguchi dated June 9 on the AOL News Web site, three
people in Japan died last year after enjoying their last meal of
fugu. These three unfortunate souls did not have a qualified chef
prepare their meal but apparently opted to dine at home. Better
they should have gone to a good restaurant and paid the $100 a
pound tab!
Now, according to the article, researchers in Nagasaki have made
a major breakthrough. I’m not sure that this breakthrough
warrants such high praise but here’s a quote from an article of
June 10 by Dan Majors in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Marine
biologists at Nagasaki University in southern Japan have come
up with a fascinating theory that could stretch the boundaries of
science and forever change the world in which we live. ‘You are
what you eat.’ ”
What prompted such a glowing statement? Osamu Arakawa and
his associates at Nagasaki didn’t accept the idea that fugu is
naturally a poisonous fish. Instead, they wondered if the fugu
acquires its poisonous nature because of its dietary choices of
poisonous food such as starfish and certain shellfish. To test this
idea, over a period of two years, they raised some 5,000 fugu in
tanks at seven different locations. The tanks were located above
the seafloor to minimize chance of the fish picking up bad stuff
from the sea bottom. They fed the fugu mackerel and other
nonpoisonous food.
Sure enough, over that 2-year period, they found no evidence of
the toxin in the fish. This startling development has caused quite
a stir in Japan and the tourist industry is itching to capitalize on
the nonpoisonous fish. They even hope to get special permits to
serve the fugu liver, normally the most risky part to eat unless
great care is taken to soak out the toxin.
The Japanese Health Ministry is rightly cautious about approving
the new specially fed farmed fugu. One can imagine what would
happen if ordinary fugu managed to find its way into the
nonpoisonous chain. Would you ever consider playing Russian
roulette? I hope not. Yet one fugu restaurateur is quoted as
saying that his customers prefer “the real thing” and that eating
the sanitized version would be “boring”. I probably will never
get to Japan but if I do I think I’ll avoid either form of fugu.
Allen F. Bortrum
*** NOTE: We are changing servers this week and the site may
be down for a while. Everything should be back in order by
Friday. ***
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