PURE LUXURY Headline Animator

PURE LUXURY

Translate

The Japanese delicacy fugu, or blowfish, is so poisonous that the smallest mistake in its preparation could be fatal.


Blowfish
Continue reading the main story

The Japanese delicacy fugu, or blowfish, is so poisonous that the smallest mistake in its preparation could be fatal. But Tokyo's city government is planning to ease restrictions that allow only highly trained and licensed chefs to serve the dish.

Kunio Miura always uses his special knives to prepare fugu - wooden-handled with blades tempered by a swordsmith to a keen edge. Before he starts work in his kitchen they are brought to him by an assistant, carefully stored in a special box.

Miura-san, as he is respectfully known, has been cutting up blowfish for 60 years but still approaches the task with caution. A single mistake could mean death for a customer.

Fugu is an expensive delicacy in Japan and the restaurants that serve it are among the finest in the country. In Miura-san's establishment a meal starts at $120 (£76) a head, but people are willing to pay for the assurance of the fugu chef licence mounted on his wall, yellowed now with age. He is one of a select guild authorised by Tokyo's city government to serve the dish.

When he begins work the process is swift, and mercifully out of sight of the surviving fugu swimming in their tank by the restaurant door.

First he lays the despatched fish, rather square of body with stubby fins, on its stomach and cuts open the head to removes its brain and eyes.

Roland Buerk watches chef Kunio Miura prepare the fugu

They are carefully placed in a metal tray marked "non-edible". Then he removes the skin, greenish and mottled on the top and sides, white underneath, and starts cutting at the guts.

"This is the most poisonous part," he says pulling out the ovaries. But the liver and intestines are potentially lethal too. "People say it is 200 times more deadly than cyanide."

Continue reading the main story

Tetrodotoxin poisoning

  • Numbness around the mouth followed by paralysis and death by respiratory failure - the victim remaining conscious throughout
  • First recorded case found in the logs of Captain Cook in 1774, after crew members ate the fish
  • Tetrodotoxin is named after the Tetraodontiformes order of fish, which includes blowfish
  • It is also found in blue-ringed octopuses, some toads, newts and other animals

Twenty-three people have died in Japan after eating fugu since 2000, according to government figures. Most of the victims are anglers who rashly try to prepare their catch at home. A spokesman for the Health and Welfare Ministry struggles to think of a single fatality in a restaurant, though last year a woman was hospitalised after eating a trace of fugu liver in one of Tokyo's top restaurants - not Miura-san's.

Tetrodotoxin poisoning has been described as "rapid and violent", first a numbness around the mouth, then paralysis, finally death. The unfortunate diner remains conscious to the end. There is no antidote.

"This would be enough to kill you," Miura-san says, slicing off a tiny sliver of fugu ovary and holding it up. Then he carefully checks the poisonous organs on the tray, making sure he has accounted for every one, and tips them into a metal drum locked with a padlock. They will be taken to Tokyo's main fish-market and burned, along with the offcuts from other fugu restaurants.

Miura-san's skill is therefore highly prized. Fugu chefs consider themselves the elite of Japan's highly competitive culinary world. He started as an apprentice in a kitchen at the age of 15. Training lasts at least two years but he was not allowed to take the practical test to get a licence until he was 20, the age people become a legal adult in Japan. A third of examinees fail.


Deadly delicacies

Three mushrooms

You don't need to dine out to sup on potentially fatal fare. Did you know that these humble foods could also have deleterious effects on your health?

Mushrooms, while benign in many varieties, can cause serious illness including kidney failureand even death.

Rhubarb leaves are discarded in cooking as they contain oxalic acid, which can cause serious illness and in big enough quantities, death.

Peanuts can be dangerous to those with severe nut allergies.

Potatoes with a greenish tinge could contain glycoalkaloids can which can be dangerous when consumed in large enough quantities.

So proposals by Tokyo's city government to relax the rules have been met with an outcry from qualified chefs. Coming into effect in October they would allow restaurants to serve portions of fugu that they have bought ready-prepared off-site.

"We worked hard to get the licence and had to pass the most difficult exam in Tokyo," says Miura-san. "Under the new rules people will be able to sell fugu after just going to a class and listening for a day. We spent lots of time and money. To get this skill you have to practice by cutting more than a hundred fish and that costs hundreds of thousands of yen."

The authorities in Tokyo impose stricter regulations than any other Japanese city. In some, restaurants have already been able to sell pre-prepared fugu for a long time. And even in Tokyo these days, it is available over the internet and in some supermarkets - one reason why officials think the rules need updating.

In terms of cost, it is likely fugu would become available in cheaper restaurants and pubs (izakayas). But going to a proper fugu restaurant to eat good wild-caught fish, prepared on-site, is quite a luxury - because of the cost, if nothing else - and also quite an event. For many, playing the equivalent of Russian roulette at the dinner table is the attraction of the dish.

Some report a strange tingling of the lips from traces of the poison, although Miura-san thinks that is unlikely. He also scoffs at the myth that a chef would be honour-bound to commit ritual suicide with his fish knife if he killed a customer. Loss of his licence, a fine, litigation or perhaps prison would be the penalty.

The fugu is arranged to look like flower petals The translucent fugu is carefully arranged in the form of petals

Miura-san serves fugu stew, and grilled fugu with teriyaki sauce, but today it is fugu-sashimi on the menu. He carefully slices the fish so thinly that when it is arranged like the petals of a chrysanthemum flower on a large dish the pattern beneath shows through.

Raw fugu is rather chewy and tastes mostly of the accompanying soy sauce dip. It is briefly poached in a broth set on a table-top burner - a dish known as shabu-shabu in Japan. The old journalistic cliche when eating unusual foods really does hold true - it tastes rather like chicken.

Fugu lovers, though, would say it has a distinctive taste, and, even more importantly, texture. Japanese has many words to describe texture because it is a very important aspect of the cuisine.

Another part of the fish's appeal is that it is a seasonal dish, eaten in winter, and Japanese diners attach a particular value to this. In the same way unagi, eel, is an important summer dish. But whatever you think of eel, it's not quite fugu - it lacks that extra thrill that comes with the knowledge that by eating it you are dicing with death.

Japanese label Nitraid have their released their ‘Dope Forest’ collection for Summer 2012

Japanese label Nitraid have their released their ‘Dope Forest’ collection for Summer 2012, which utilises a cannabis graphic across the full line-up. The pattern is pretty well done and acts out more like a camouflage which isn’t as obvious compared to other cannabis orientated designs that we’re used to seeing from other brands. The collection’s consists of a various items of clothing like polo shirts, vests, and denim to a number of accessories, particularly bags. All the items are finished off with a red branded tab and are available now online.

Take a look at the full collection after the click.

 

TRICKERS X FRANS BOONE RICHARD LONGWING

Trickers latest collaboration is this exclusive Grey Suede with Navy blue Piping Longwing with Dutch retailer Frans Boone. The addition of a Natural Barbour welt and a Navy Vibram Gumlite sole make the shoe unique and sure to be a successful seller. Available now at €398.00.  

Chanel’s Double C Logo Fake Tattoo Beauty Spots For Sale

Karl Lagerfeld already sells Chanel fake garter tattoos. Next, the iconic’s labeldouble C logo became a beauty spot! A beauty sticker, Chanel’s logo beauty spot was first seen in Chanel’s strange Resort 2013 collection and it will reportedly hit stores later this year, part of an entire beauty collection (along with Mouche de Beauté highlight and pink eye shadow). Chanel CC beauty spots! I’m sure that they wear this at the Capitol (Hunger Games reference, biensur)! {MsaRS}

Chanel logo beauty spot CC fake tattoo

Toki has been one of Nike Sportswear most popular lifestyle silhouettes.

Nike Toki Vintage

Since its initial release in 2008, the Toki has been one of Nike Sportswear most popular lifestyle silhouettes. Making its way into retailers all across the world this month, this vulcanized chukka is seen today in a clean summer-ready colorway that features an off-white canvas upper with a matching Swoosh. The midsole is finished-off with pre-stained look, while the inner liner is dressed in a fleece-like material. Additional angles can be found below.

Nike Toki Vintage Sail/Sail

Nike Toki Vintage Sail/Sail

Nike Toki Vintage Sail/Sail

Nike Toki Vintage Sail/Sail

Nike Toki Vintage Sail/Sail

Nike Toki Vintage Sail/Sail

Martin Scorcese to produce Silver Ghost film about Rolls-Royce

This could be interesting: Oscar-winners Martin Scorsese and Richard Attenborogh are teaming up to make a film called Silver Ghost, based, in part, on the lives of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. The screenplay was written by Jeffrey Caine (Goldeneye) and playwright Sharman Macdonald, who also happens to be actress Kiera Knightley's mom. According to Top Gear, the biopic will be set at the dawn of the 20th Century, during the seminal days of the auto industry. But the report says the real hero of the story will be one Lord John Douglas-Scott Montagu, the Second Baron Montagu of Beaulieu and a member of British Parliament who used his position in British society to champion motoring. While we're not quite sure what all that Barons and Lords stuff is about, reading that in 1899 Montagu drove the first car to enter the yard of the House of Commons made us think he must have been a decent enough chap. According to the report, he even launched a monthly car magazine. And like any good period-film protagonist, he was romantically linked to another key figure in the story, Eleanor Thornton, the woman who inspired the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy mascot that became a defining feature of the marque. The film is still a long way from the screen, although Scorcese's involvement can't hurt its chances of getting made. Neither would casting Knightley as Thornton, if you ask us.

Mansory channels Enzo styling in Ferrari 458 Spider Monaco Edition

Mansory Ferrari 458 Spider Monaco Edition

Say what you want about the German-based tuner Mansory, but the company definitely has a style all its own. The same can be said for their latest creation, the Ferrari 458 Spider Monaco Edition, which is channeling quite a bit of the Ferrari Enzo on its snout.

Mansory says that the new body panels, all of which are constructed of lightweight carbon fiber, save a little over 130 pounds, and with power boosted to 590 horsepower the car is capable of hitting 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) in 3.2 seconds and reaching a top speed of 205 mph. The interior of the 458 Spider Monaco Edition gets the Mansory treatment as well, with custom upholstery done in leather, Alcantara and carbon fiber in a combination of red and white.

Mansory says it will produce just three of the Monaco Edition Ferrari 458 Spiders. No word on pricing, although we can't imagine the changes come cheap

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...