The Fugu Phenomenon*
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 05.02.08 | 9:23 AM ET
Homer Simpson may have introduced you to fugu. Or perhaps Anthony Bourdain. They’re among those who have eaten the potentially deadly blowfish and helped make it “the thrill-seeking gastronome’s equivalent to scaling Mount Everest,” writes Adam Platt in New York Magazine. It’s banned through much of Europe and available only in a few restaurants in the U.S., though the FDA-sanctioned importing process, according to Platt, renders the fugu “less toxic than a piece of mercury-saturated tuna sushi at your local Korean deli.”
Only in Japan can one get the truly on-the-edge experience of eating the fish that might kill you, so that’s where “intrepid TV hosts and iron-stomached bloggers” go to eat it. So did Platt. His story looks at a phenomenon I want no part of.
Update: Saturday, May 3, 1:31 p.m. ET: “Thanks to advances in fugu research and farming, Japanese fish farmers are now mass-producing fugu as harmless as goldfish,” the New York Times reports.
Related on World Hum:
* Japan’s Yoshoku Menu: Hambagoo, Ketchup-Flavored Rice and Stir-Fried ‘Napolitan’ Spaghetti
Related on TravelChannel.com
* Anthony Bourdain’s blog
Photo by furibond, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
