So what's all the fuss about?
For centuries people all over Japan people have been eating Fugu to die for.
I'd eaten a little Fugu sashimi before but never had the full deal. With Tomono and the host parents we went to a special little sushi shop in Fujisawa and had made a prior arrangement with the owner who is fully trained, so he said.
The shop is marvellous, quite old, quiet, clean, beautiful, not fussy and used exclusively by the locals. I was the first foreigner to have dined there.
Relative to Australia Japan is now quite cheap, and our splendid meal, including a completely immoderate amount of sake and beer, cost $100 per head.
Good to see the bloke in charge was happy and smiling. You don't want a depressed Fugu chef. You know, the sort of person who has decided to move on and is only too happy to a few other people with him.
So here we go:
An appetiser of stuffed baby squid.
Savoury egg custard with octopus and ginko nuts and zest of Uzu (Japanese lime)
The main sashimi dish.
There is clear and opaque flesh. The texture is very firm and the flavour is very mild. In fact I think this raw Fugu is fairly neutral, it is more of a textural experience than a flavour one. But...very interestingly in the middle you can see four different sorts of the Fugu skin, which is also eaten. Fugu have an inner and and an outer skin. The top is black and the underside white. they blanch part of the skin and serve the other parts raw, thus you get four different sorts. Black, grey opaque, white and white opaque. Here the flavours were more intense but its still really all about the differing textures.
Demonstrating the skin types.
Fried Fugu, a bit like flaky flathead.
Then a hot pot of Fugu, mushrooms, arrowroot noodles and greens. this was one of the best bits of the meal. The cooked Fugu has a terrific flavour. It is like the difference between raw and cooked lobster. Suddenly much deeper richer flavours appear. The flesh and taste reminded me of frog, or monkfish and indeed lobster.It was rich, complex and sweet.
One suddenly saw why all the fuss.
Then to finish the remaining hot pot soup is taken away. The pottery bowl is heated to red hot and rice and beaten egg is added. the resulting soupy dish is served with lovely crispy pickled vegetables. The taste was sublime.
So a truly astounding meal which well explained why all the carry on about Fugu.
Incredibly there is a move afoot in Japan to deregulate Fugu. Restaurants would be able to have Fugu delivered from an approved factory. Next they are working on plans to deregulate brain surgeons, airline pilots and dentists.....
During our trip to the North we came back through Fukushima and Minamisoma. On the coast in the the big towns they have tidies up a lot a lot. However all along the coast there are small communities completely devastated and much left to tidy up.
Abandoned houses and empty ruined greenhouses. Particularly strange as Japanese farms are normally spotlessly tidy.
This used to be a large area of houses.
Earthqauke damage. This large town of about 15,000 completely abandonned to escape the radiation. No time to repair or tidy up. There are still things on the shelves of the shops and everything left untouched. This being Japan of course ..no looters.
The ten of thousands survivors of all this are living in temprary housing, families in a single room.
