Remember Edit 6 about Pimientos de Padron? We discussed a dish that can be compared to the lethal game; Russian Roulette. Luckily the Spanish peppers are not so deadly as Russian Roulette. Los Pimientos de Padron, unos pican otros no or some are hot, some are not.
Surprise, surprise, this week we are playing the game yet again but not with the Pimientos. This week the stakes are higher. If this dish is prepared in the wrong way it actually can have deadly effects on the person who's eating it. This week we will be sharing 河豚 鰒 フグ or Fugu but you probably know it as Pufferfish or Blowfish. Our table is set in Shimonoseki, the Fugu capital of Japan.
A bit of Biology
There are many species (almost 100 species) of Fugu that can be found throughout the whole world, from Africa to Asia. Some of the Fugu have bright colors, some have spikes and others are only 2 centimeters 'un-puffed.' 90% of these species can be found around the coasts of Japan.
There is one kind of species that is more poisonous and therefore more prized, the Takifugu or Tiger Pufferfish. This is the most requested Fugu in the whole of Japan and thus the most sought after.
Do you have the guts?
So how lethal will this round of Russian Roulette be? Since we live in 2020 the chances of being poisoned by eating Fugu are basically nil. But, if this dinner was set like 50 years ago the odds would be very different.
In 1960 it was pretty normal to hear that around 100 Japanese died because of eating Fugu. We will discover later in this edit how the Japanese radically decreased this number.
The poison
The liver, eyes, ovaries, and skin of the Fugu contain a high amount of tetrodotoxin. Tetrodotoxin is one of the most toxic gasses in the world, it is 1200 times more toxic than cyanide. To give this a perspective, hydrogen cyanide (cyanide in a gas form) was used in the German extermination camps during World War II. If you doubted the toxicity of tetrodotoxin, it is now clear how extremely toxic the Fugu is.
It would be wise to know what the effects of tetrodotoxin are before we feast, just in case. Fugu poisoning first causes dizziness, numbness of the mouth and lips, weakness, nausea, diarrhea, sweating, breathing trouble, cramps, blue lips, intense itchiness, vomiting, and dilated pupils. Victims who eat a lot go into a 'zombie sleep' in which victims are aware of what is going on but can't move. Still sure you want to eat it?
Pass the puffer
The only species immune to pufferfish toxins are sharks. Sharks can eat as many as they want without negative consequences, pretty awesome. But there is another animal that uses the pufferfish for self-enriching purposes, the dolphin. Just like humans dolphins also have substance abuse problems. A small dosage of tetrodotoxin can induce a trance-like state.
This self-enriching process does not harm the pufferfish. The dolphins put the bloated puffer fish in their mouths, the pufferfish will release a small dosage of tetrodotoxin because it feels dangered. Once the tetrodotoxin has been ingested, the pufferfish moves on to the next dolphin.
A deep dive
While you "enjoy" the Fugu I will explain to you the dish and animal you have in front of your nose. Surprisingly, this fish is one of the oldest dishes we have addressed, yet. Bones of the pufferfish have been found in many different tumuli (burial mounds) around Japan. These tumuli date back to the Jomon period (10.000 - 300 B.C.).
It is in some way a bit of a shame since there are no written records about this period of time. I would love to know how the people in that period found out that Fugu was poisonous and how they found out that the liver, ovaries, and eyes contained the poison. Because the first written records weren't until the much later Yayoj period (300 B.C. - 250 A.C.). Funny enough one of these first found records was about Fugu.
Weird westerners...
So unfortunately there are no written records of the first Japanese who encountered the Fugu fish and used it for culinary purposes. Luckily there is a reference found in Captain James Cook's log from his second Pacific voyage of 1772-1775 about the first instance of a westerner being poisoned by Fugu.
On the 7th of September, 1774, the crew of Cook's sloop HMS Resolution caught and ate the flesh of several ‘spiny tropical fish’. They fed the less desirable parts (the heads, organs, etc) to the herd of pigs that were kept on board.
The crewmen who ate these fish fell ill, suffering from weakness, numbness, and shortness of breath; but they all survived, suggesting a mild dose of toxin. The entire herd of pigs perished however, suggesting that they had eaten the livers and ovaries of the Fugu. As we know it is the liver, eyes, skin, and ovaries of the pufferfish which contain the highest concentration of tetrodotoxin, leading to a lethal dose.
Hirobumi for the win!
Back to Japan. Fugu was commonly eaten over the years in Japan until a mass poisoning of Japanese troops took place in the 1500s. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the man who unified Japan and invaded Korea, banned the Fugu because of this event.
The ban on the Fugu stayed for almost 200 years and even though Fugu became illegal, the fish never really disappeared. The legend is that prime minister Hirobumi Ito ate Fugu and found it so delicious, he demanded to lift the ban immediately.
Fugu nowadays
Since then Fugu was back on the market, but the number of people dying of food poisoning was still a very big problem. It wasn't until 1930 when Tokyo Fugu Ryori Renmei (Cooking Alliance) was formed in order to reduce the number of people being poisoned.
This alliance introduced the idea that chefs could follow a 3-year training on how to prepare Fugu in a safe way. These chefs would then receive a certificate that would prove they are approved of preparing Fugu. Only chefs with a certificate would be allowed to buy the Fugu on the market and serve the Fugu in their restaurant. This idea soon became reality.
Because of this intervention, the number of people who've died because of food poisoning has drastically been decreased. The chances of being poisoned are basically 0.0 nowadays. That is only if you eat it at verified Fugu restaurants of course...
On a serious note…
Fugu is extremely popular in Japan. The fishing nets of Shimonoseki bring 10,000 tons of Fugu each year. Since not every Japanese has the money to go to a Fugu restaurant, almost 5,000 tons disappear into the black market of Tokyo. Because of this high demand and heavy consumption, the fish is almost extinct nowadays.
So if you are in Japan and looking to try out this historical delicacy, please do so by going to a Fugu verified restaurant.
See you next week when we will discuss another fish for the rich, Blue Fin Tuna!