
Where Death Lies - kawera
http://www.themorningnews.org/article/where-death-lies
======
scarygliders
I'm Scottish and thus was brought up on entirely cooked food.

Fish was bread-crumbed or battered, and was invariably cod. And deep fried. It
was always filleted, no bones, and was either a fully filleted piece of
quality fish, or fish fingers.

In fact I can't remember a time where I had to eat any kind of meat which was
raw. Also, we didn't really eat any kind of shellfish - or at least, I had an
aversion to shellfish ever since I was given boiled winkles (sea snails) at a
young age - around 4 or 5. So I got fussy with my food - no shellfish, no "sea
bugs" \- prawns, lobster, whatever wasn't filleted and bread-crumbed or
battered fish.

You can imagine the comedy after I married a Japanese woman. The Japanese love
raw fish. And me being set in my ways, and 100% stubborn, usually refused to
eat raw fish. The only time I've eaten raw fish was after a good few doses of
sake, when my inhibitions were lowered. Otherwise, it's a case of "Nope!"

I also decided that moving to Japan was a Good Idea (we had lived in London
for 12 years, which as a Scotsman I hated vehemently), and ripped our family
(by then we had a son) out to Japan, where we lived and I worked for 6 years -
in Koriyama city, Fukushima prefecture, until the magnitude 9 earthquake and
subsequent Drama made for a less than perfect life and which was the trigger
for me to drag my family over to my native Scotland where we now live, and
where the ground is reassuringly Very Ancient and Doesn't Wobble So Much.

So, living in Japan had plenty of comedy. There were the inevitable Family
Get-Togethers, and in Japan this invariably involves copious amounts of raw
fish, which, if you're me, is "Totally Awesome </sarc>". It means there's 15
plates filled with raw fish sushi and sashimi, and then one plate filled with
salads and chicken kari-agi (chicken nuggets for the uninitiated ;) ).

Yep - pretty stubborn and fussy eater all right. The point of this monologue?
My motto is "I eat to live, not live to eat".

~~~
coldtea
> _Fish was bread-crumbed or battered, and was invariably cod. And deep
> fried._

Well, that will kill you too. Just much much slower.

------
finid
> Each year, the Japanese government expects dozens of people to die from
> eating ill-prepared blowfish

My reading of that is, at least 24 Japanese die every year from eating ill-
prepared fugu.

But then comes the following paragraph:

>Chefs undergo rigorous training to receive fugu accreditation and yet, the
Japanese government projects that 30 to 50 people will be poisoned each year
due to ill-prepared blowfish, and several have died in the past decade.

"Several have died in the past decade" means in 10 years, less than 12-10 have
died, which translates to about 1 death every year.

That does not compute with the first quoted paragraph, or did I miss
something?

~~~
sparky_z
The headline and one line summary at the top were probably written by an
editor, not the author. The editor probably skimmed over the piece, saw the
line "the Japanese government projects that 30 to 50 people will be poisoned
each year", and didn't realize that most poisoning victims recover. Or didn't
care.

------
PhantomGremlin
Homer Simpson once consumed poisonous fugu fish. He thought he only had 22
hours left to live. (Fortunately for us, he survived):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Fish,_Two_Fish,_Blowfish,_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Fish,_Two_Fish,_Blowfish,_Blue_Fish)

One very well done bit is how quickly Homer progresses through the five stages
of grief; it takes him about seven sentences:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701195/trivia?tab=qt&ref_=tt_tr...](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701195/trivia?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu)

------
wtbob
> My family is Chinese-American … A Japanese waitress stood by, smiling, her
> pen poised over her notepad. It was obvious I was a foreigner from the way I
> was dressed and from my company; but still, I felt some wild instinct flare
> up inside of me, an urge to acknowledge our shared ethnicity …

Y'know, there are a huge number of both Japanese & Chinese who would disagree
that they have any shared ethnicity at all …

------
beloch
"I raised a piece up, too, examining the gauziness of the meat draped over my
chopsticks. I placed it in my mouth—there was next to no flavor though the
texture was delicate, like a fine sweet film. And while the skin had great
bounce, it was basically flavorless, too."

So, if the flavor is nothing special, is the danger posed by the dish the
whole point of consuming fugu?

------
amelius
Isn't there a simple chemical test for the toxins, which a chef could use?

~~~
finid
I think a chef's main task involves carefully removing the parts of a fugu
where the toxins are known to be concentrated.

~~~
GavinMcG
Of course, but if they're not always successful, their secondary task should
perhaps be to test their food to make sure it's safe.

~~~
themartorana
Yeah I feel like science and some test strips would do the job. But eating
blowfish to begin with is ridiculous, and based solely on tradition. Testing
for toxins could be seen as disrespecting the tradition.

~~~
coldtea
> _Yeah I feel like science and some test strips would do the job. But eating
> blowfish to begin with is ridiculous, and based solely on tradition._

Citation needed. They ate it centuries ago too, before they even had a
tradition of eating it.

It's more bravado than tradition. They don't eat it because "our ancestors ate
this too", but because they like the challenge. Who with any sense of bravado
wouldn't?

