FUGU- A delicacy made from a fish 1000 times more posinous than cyanide ⁉️

Have you heard of A Japanese delicacy made from the most poisonous fish in the world? If you haven't, read on, if you have, might as well read on

^{All screenshots above was taken from my phone on X}

So here is what happened, as you can see from the above screenshot taken from my phone. I was going through my X feed and I stumbled on this tweet, which actually to an extent made me question human behavior, psychology and our inherent instinct to survive (and not die).
The above screenshoted information states in clear terms that there is a fish so poisonous, arguably the most poisonous fish in the world, known as the pufferfish a.k.a the second most poisonous vertebrae in the world after the Poison Golden Frog. This fish is being made into a popular delicacy in Japan and people actually eat this delicacy. Weird right? confidently eating a delicacy that has a high probability of killing you.

Or maybe the above is just pure exaggeration and an attempt at sugar-coating. Lets find out 👇

Now the pufferfish is a broad daylight fascination and a testament to the fact that looks can be deceving, a living deadly cute fish but it doesnt end there. What is more fascinating and might tickle your brain cells is the fact that, as posinous and deadly as this fish is, more poisonous than cyanide by the way, a single drop of it posinous fluid is capable of killing 30 grown men. Now, with everything about this fish biology and physiology screaming run! for your dear life, if you don't wanna die of food poisoning, The Japanese have decided that, while others might be running for their dear life alright, why don't we eat this so called most posinous fish in the world and see how it taste? Talk about a plot twist. The hunter can ways become the hunted if there is a revolution.

I just couldnt understand it, I thought to myself, would people really risk dying, placing their life (We've only got one by the way) on the line, just for the satisfaction of tasting a delicacy, really ? If you ask me, its not different from willingly signing a death warrant just to get a bite of food.

Everything about eating the puffer fish spells doom and gloom. Now, in as much of a bad news this fish is, especially as regards staying alive, Japanese have a better idea. They decided to create a delicacy out of this fish, the good news is, they succeeded and they called this delicacy FUGU (popular in Japan).

Now the question is, how were the Japanese (Asians) successfully able to convert the world most posinous fish, containing tetrodotoxin with no known antidote into an edible , non-posinous, delicious delicacy? This is no easy feat.

Read on to find out

Before I say anything as regards the preparation, watch this 5 minute video, I promise it would be worth your time 👇

video by wocomoCOOK

Now on to everything and anything concerning preparing a FUGU delicacy

First thing first, the FUGU delicacy cannot be prepeared by everybody and just anybody except of course you are suicidal or you plan to kill someone.

The preparation of FUGU in Japan restaurants is based solely on having a license to buy the fish and prepare the delicacy. In other words you need a license to buy this fish in japan. The license to buy also serve as a license to prepare the meal as a highly skilled chef, not only skilled, but skilled in the preparation of FUGU.

To tell you how delicate the preparation of the FUGU delicacy is, those chef licensed to prepare it have to undergo a range of 4-6 years of training, in which they buy and cut up hundreds of FUGU fish to perfect the act of cutting up the fish to remove the posinous parts and rendering it non-posinius before preparation

After undergoing these years of training successfully, they then proceed to write an exam before getting their license to buy and prepare the fish in restaurants. You are allowed to attempt preparing the fish in your home. Thats if you can lay your hands on the fish which requires a license to buy and even sell.
If you opting for a DIY approach in preparation without proper training, you might as well get ready to die, because any mistake in preparation especially if there is a single drop of its posinous fluid automatically spells dooms. By the way there is no antidote.

Now the Pufferfish contain a deadly poison known as tetrodotoxin, a poisonous compound 1000 times more potent than cyanide, again there is no antidote, now you know gravity of the situation.
If that is the case, the question is 👇

How do licenses chefs manage to render this fish non-posinous for preparation and consumption?From personal research, what they do is, they remove parts of the fish which are known to be posinous.

The following parts are removed skillfully:

• The Liver
• The reproductive organs
• Intestine
• Skin

These are the part of the FUGU fish where the Poison tetrodotoxin is fully nested. Removing these parts take great skill and precision to avoid toxic contamination of other edible parts which could lead to death

After being rendered non-posinous, the fish is cut up beautifully, prepared and served in various styles anyway you want it. Yeah, just so you know even after preparation it is inspected again, which totally makes sense if no one is going to die honestly.

Words has it that people travel from far and wide just to have a taste of this amazing delicious delicacy. I dont know about that honestly, travelling to have a taste of something that could put you five feet under. I sincerely don't know

Anyways, thats it about the FUGU delicacy from my end, if you want to know more about either the fish itself or the delicacy, you go all in and also do your own findings. With that, I leave you with this question 👇

IF THE FUGU DELICACY WAS PREPARED BY A LICENSED CHEF AND PRESENTED TO YOU, AND YOU, FULLY AND WELL AWARE OF THE ABOVE INFORMATION ON HOW POSINOUS AND DEADLY IT IS. YOU ARE ALSO WELL AWARE THAT ANY MISTAKE IN ITS PREPARATION OR INSPECTION CAN SPELL QUICK DOOM AND A JOURNEY TO THE AFTERLIFE FOR THE CONSUMER, WITH NO KNOWN ANTIDOTE, WOULD YOU STILL EAT THIS FUGU DELICACY ?

Let me have your answers in the comment section. I want to see if people are really willing to place their life on the line for a quick bite of a delicious FUGU delicacy.

A quick YES or NO would do. PLEASE 🙏 dont leave without commenting. Thanks for reading and of course commenting .

Resources consulted

• https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/advisory-puffer-fish
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu
• https://web-japan.org/trends/11_food/jfd202101_fugu.html
• https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18065372
• https://www.kobejones.com.au/the-art-of-preparing-and-eating-the-worlds-most-deadly-fish/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/t-magazine/fugu-blowfish-deadly-food.html
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/takifugu
• https://twofishdivers.com/blog/pufferfish-are-the-second-most-poisonous-vertebrate-in-the-world/

Credit

^{Video used by wocomoCOOK
Screenshots used taken by me on X}