Surviving Dangerous Cuisine

I ate a blowfish. . . and survived.

According to the Dimensions Guide, “The small size of the blowfish is hardly indicative of its toxicity. The puffer fish is the second most toxic vertebrae on the planet. The inner organ and skin are extremely poisonous to people.”

Sunday evening, while dining on gourmet Chinese food with French, Japanese, and Taiwanese influences at Hui Du Delicacy Restaurant in Shanghai, I experienced one of the most dangerous delicacies on the planet.

Not one to offend hosts by refusing food, I was game to try anything and everything they shared with me…with the exception being rice since 1) I already know what that tastes like and 2) the gluten and starch doesn’t do too well with me.

The first unusual delicacy I tried was something that looked the the shape of a slug, but with red muscle and bones.  It was, in fact, duck tongue.  The way it was prepared was very tasty, but it wasn’t exactly my favorite.  But . . . I tried it and ate an entire one.

My favorite dish was French-style goose liver prepared with shrimp and pan-seared green beans.  Apparently this was a favorite at our table since it was one of the few dishes that disappeared completely.  When you have a 20 course meal, it’s hard to polish off everything.

About five dishes after I was told the wait staff had brought out the last dish, I was presented with a plate with a puffer fish cooked with a brown sauce on a bed of greens, and puffer fish in a delicate soup.

I was asked several times if I knew what it was before they told me.

I had no idea.  It was an indiscernable object covered in a brown gravy–but I could make out a fish.

After about 15 minutes of my friends searching on Chinese websites for images or english translations, I finally understood what was set before me.

Blowfish via Dimensions Guide

My friends said that approximately seven people die each year consuming the blowfish. Although skilled chefs prepare this delicacy (removing the toxic organs), still sometimes the neurotoxin gets into the bloodstream competing with acetylcholine for the neurotransmitter receivers, thus, causing a human’s diaphragm to spasm and contract without relaxing.  After three minutes of the diaphragm contraction, a person will die.

(Read more about the preparation, and other interesting data from Wikipedia on the Fugu or Hétún)

We waited for one doctor at the table to be the first brave soul to try this dish.  After an initial twenty minutes had elapsed (the time-frame in which you’ll know whether or not you’re dead from consumption of the neurotoxin), i decided to try it.

I was ready to dig in, but apparently there’s a certain way to eat the toxic and prickly skin.  My friend used chopsticks to roll the skin up so that the inner surface of the skin was now exposed to the outside, and the prickly exterior was on the inside.

I made the mistake of trying to chew it up instead of just letting it slide down the hatch.

The texture was squishy like raw chicken covered in sandpaper or mini chicken feather quills.  Based on texture alone, I don’t understand why it’s such a prized delicacy–not my favorite.

However, the fish flesh itself was very light and had a wonderful taste.

Only a few minutes after I had a few bites, I felt like the food was stuck in my stomach.  My gut felt a little tight and uncomfortable.  I don’t know if my response was psychosomatic or whether trace amounts of neurotoxin were reacting with my body.  Or it could have been that I was so full from so many other dishes, that one more dish on top of it was just more than I had room.

But then, another person at the table felt the same way…tightness in his stomach.

I never experienced labored breathing . . . and half-joking, I remarked that I didn’t want to die in China.  My family would be very upset with me.

Then, they brought out a bowl of soup.  This time, it was the blow fish prepared a different way…in a light broth.  After the previous experience, I decided to avoid eating any of the fish.  But, I did enjoy the broth.

For the remainder of the evening, I felt slightly uncomfortable in my gut.  I kept drinking green tea to settle my stomach.  Later, I took some colloidal silver–not that that would have done anything against a neurotoxin, but I hoped it would settle my gut.

–

Yay. I tried it.  Yay. I’m alive.  I feel no need to re-experience the blowfish.  I do feel like I want to get a t-shirt that says,

I ate a blowfish (Hétún 河豚) and survived!