Fugu You Too!

Another epicureal peak conquered! I have eaten fugu. Unfortunately the view from the summit was not as grand as I would have imagined but there was a hidden gem discovered as will be described in the blog. As many followers of the blog have read, I’ve been “dying” to try fugu or Japanese pufferfish. My co-workers and I finally were able to make a reservation for five at “Genpin Fugu” in Roppongi on Friday night.

We arrived at the restaurant and first ordered a beer. This seems a fairly standard ritual at most of the dinners I’ve been to and you toast each other with “Kampai” and clink glasses. Some rituals are just universal. What surprised me most was that I noticed my hand was shaking a little when we toasted. Now, I’d like to think this was because it was 7:00 PM on a Friday and I’d yet to have a drink. Normally, I’d be six deep by seven but, in truth; I realized I was bit nervous about the meal. Oh sure, the odds were definitely stacked in my favor. This was a fully licensed fugu restaurant and most fugu poisonings in Japan are the result of fisherman eating their catch but, the more I thought about it, this was a really dumb idea. I’d like to think I’m not prone to doing stupid things but this was one of them. But as I’ve said previously in this blog, I’m using my trip to Japan as a way to experience new things and not allow my normally logical mind to stop me from enjoying these experiences. So when the waiter placed our first fugu course in front of me. I dove right in. The first course was Fugu Skin Sashimi and it’s what I’m eating in the photo to the right. If you think about this for a second, you might realize what the texture was like. The pufferfish, when threatened underwater, can inflate itself with water, until it’s almost spherical in shape. Once it’s no longer threatened, it deflates itself. So the skin is very elastic in nature, almost like a balloon. So as I popped that first piece of Fugu Skin Sashimi in my mouth and bit down, that’s what I thought I was eating…..a balloon. Texturally, it was horrendous and I made sure my facial expressions did not give away my personal feeling. I also noticed a faint, what I’ll call “medicinal” taste on the far back of my tongue near the throat. It wasn’t pleasant or unpleasant, just noticeable. So after much chewing and pondering whether that “medicinal” taste would subsequently lead to muscle paralysis and then death, I completed the first course. One fugu dish down.

But we were a long way off from being completed with the meal. The second course was fugu sashimi where the meat is sliced very thin. A wedge of lime was provided and was squeezed over the sashimi. The sashimi was then dipped into soy sauce with green onions and radish. I eat sashimi weekly but normally with maguro (blue fin tuna), sake (salmon) and saba (mackerel). I assumed that since the fugu was sliced thinly, it would be tender just as the other types of sashimi are. Nope. It wasn’t as rubbery as the fugu skin sashimi but definitely very chewy. My jaw was going to get a workout tonight (nudge, nudge, say no more squire). Once again, that same “medicinal” flavor was hitting the back of my tongue.

One of my co-workers then suggested we have some saké (rice wine not salmon which is spelled sake). Of course, we couldn’t have just everyday saké. Instead we were served Fugu Hire-zake or Pufferfish fin saké. The fish fins are deep fried then soaked in some kind of liquid combustible. The fins are then lit aflame and dunked in the warmed saké. They place a lid over the flaming saké cup and after about twenty seconds, you can start to drink. In general, I like saké. But then again, there are very few alcoholic beverages I don’t like. However, I’m not sure placing the lid over the cup before all the liquid combustible is burned off is such a good idea as the first taste was not that of sweet saké. I thought, “Won’t this be ironic if I am poisoned in a fugu restaurant but not by the fish but because of some un-ignited chemical fuelant”.

The third course was a chunky fugu sashimi but this was placed on a piece of Chinese cabbage and topped with a spicy sauce and green onions. This dish I liked a lot and for some reason the fugu wasn’t that chewy. Probably my jaw was numb at this point. No “medicinal”
taste but then again I’m a believer that a good sauce can mask almost any food.

Fourth course was deep-fried fugu. I watched as my co-worker popped a piece of the fried fish into his mouth and I did the same. Before he had a chance to warn me I bit down and felt something akin to a razor blade slicing into the roof of my mouth. I heard him say “Be careful, you have to eat around the bones”. Why would the restaurant serve chunky (boneless) fugu sashimi but when it comes to coating the fish and frying it, they keep the bones intact?! More amazing still, my co-workers popped chunk after chunk of fried fish into their mouths and would then remove a 3-D jigsaw puzzle-looking bone that was picked completely clean. A little Blazing Saddles Taggart comes to mind: “God darnit, Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore”.

Fifth course they brought out a small charcoal grill and cooked up several pieces of fugu similar in size to the fried fugu. The ashes from the grill were floating everywhere, in the dipping sauces, in my saké, even found some in my underwear later on. Don’t ask. Let’s just say I had a lot more Fugu Hire-zake after the first.

Sixth course was fugu hotpot also known as shabu-shabu (“swish-swish”). A big bowl of water was placed on the center grill of the table and boiled. They then placed a layer of fugu chunks in the bottom, followed by Chinese cabbage, big chunks of tofu, ginger bulbs and mushrooms. While this was cooking up, they provided various cuts of fugu that you quickly dipped (swish-swish) into the hotpot to lightly cook and then dipped in a tangy ponzu vinegar sauce. The flesh portions were similar to the fugu sashimi and a light cooking made them easy to eat. However, my co-workers insisted I try something from another plate which I have no idea what part of the fish it was. I believe it was the egg sac where the roe is held but honestly I am not sure. Nonetheless, it was impossible to eat. I was chewing and chewing but the material just wasn’t breaking down. I eventually had to swallow the item whole. I would liken that experience to the following; imagine if you found a whitish-pink balloon that had been sitting outside all summer in a fetid puddle of water such that the balloon was all coated with a thick slimy layer of scum and little back spots where mold and mildew had adhered to the balloon. Then, since you missed lunch you decided on a little nourishment and popped that elastic morsel into your mouth but rather than having the common sense to spit out, you gnawed and chewed like a wild animal before powering it down like a Columbian drug mule prepping for her trip to America. Mmmm, slimy moldy balloons.
It was during the shabu-shabu, however, that I discovered the hidden gem. In addition to the various ingredients that were added above, there was also a green leafy plant that was also provided for consumption but it wasn’t added to the shabu-shabu while the soup cooked. The diners were allowed to quickly boil these green stalks and then dip in the ponzu and eat. I tried one and it was delicious. There was an initial floral taste to the plant followed by a slight bitterness which was counter-balanced by the sweetness from the ponzu sauce. Fantastic. I asked my co-workers what it was and they said Shungiku. If you’re like me, that meant nothing. My co-worker than used my blackberry to look up the English word and he replied “Garland Chrysanthemum”. Okay, not much better other than knowing that a Chrysanthemum is a flower. But it was still delicious.



After most of the soup ingredients are consumed, they then add rice and eggs to the broth and make Zosui rice. The rice/soup is served with green onions and nori (seaweed) and a side order of Japanese pickles.

And then finally we finished off the meal with some dessert which was a mango ice cream.

Throughout the meal, we primarily drank saké. For the early part of the meal, I was drinking the Fugu Hire-zake. They only light the first cup on fire and after that just refill your cup which I did multiple times. One of my co-workers considers himself quite a saké aficionado so I asked him if he would recommend a little sampling of sakés which he was pleased to do. We tried three different sakés all with the latter half of the meal. I told him I would withhold my comments and rankings until I tried all three that he selected. They served the saké in a tall glass shooter that was placed in a lacquerware box and they overfill the glass so that the lacquerware box is about half-filled. You drink the shooter glass first and then the saké in the box. Since these were all better quality sakés, they were served cool not warmed. The first saké was excellent with a really clean taste. The second was acceptable but I did not like it as much as the first. The third was a sweeter variety different from the first two and one that many Americans would probably enjoy. When I completed the sampling, I told my co-worker that, for my tastes and what I thought was the better quality products, the first saké was the best, the third (sweet) saké was second and the middle saké was last. My ranking really surprised my co-worker as he said that is how a Japanese person would rank them. As a side note, they’re always amazed when a gaijin can do something that they consider “Japanese”. I occasionally will use (properly pronounced) various Japanese phrases that I’ve learned and you would think they were watching a dog talking. I probably should be insulted by it but I generally find it more humorous and like surprising them. My co-worker was so pleased that I appreciated quality saké that he brought in a bottle of saké for me on Monday which is one of his favorite brands. I am now obligated to search out an equal quality product and bring that back from America as a gift. Not a problem. I love international cooperation.