What To Know Before Eating The Deadly Fugu Fish
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- Fugu, also known as the pufferfish, globefish and blowfish, is served in 3,800 different restaurants around Japan
- In order to be authorized to prepare fugu, a chef must go through rigorous training that takes years. In fact, at the end of the training the chef must prepare the fish for human consumption and then eat it himself/herself. Make sure that when ordering, you ask to see the chef’s certification to be safe.
- The poison is located in the fish’s skin, ovaries, skeleton and intestines, mainly the liver. If properly prepared, the poison is washed out and it is safe to eat; however, never eat the liver. This is extremely dangerous and illegal.
- Some people enjoy eating fugu with a bit of poison left inside to experience a tingling of the lips. This is dangerous and should not be done. There is no cure for fugu poisoning, and because the central nervous system shuts down gradually when infected with the fugu’s poison, you won’t know until it’s too late anyway.
- If you’d like to experience fugu in a safer way, you can find lanterns, toys and wallets made of fugu skin in Japan.
