While the chewy fugu doesn’t boast much in the way of taste (it’s enhanced by generous amounts of ponzu sauce, scallions, wasabi, radish, and - Sawahara’s signature - grapefruit, whose sweet and sour notes complement the fish), it’s likely the exhilaration of risking death that heightens the dining experience. Still, fugu is banned in the European Union and US outside New York City, and the Japanese head of state had been prohibited from eating fugu until 2007, according to Sawahara - but if it’s now deemed safe enough for Emperor Akihito, it must be safe enough for everybody else. “This technique is 100-percent certain, so the fish we prepare is completely safe,” he says. But since both farmed and wild-caught puffer fish can contain potent tetrodotoxin in the brains, eyes, liver, intestines and ovaries, chefs may be required to train for years to master the skills for removing those organs without error - one tora fugu (the tiger puffer fish) holds enough toxin to kill 20 by paralysis and asphyxiation, and there’s no known antidote. The fish aren’t inherently poisonous they accumulate toxins from bacteria in the algae and shellfish they feed on, hence farmed fugu can be reared to contain minimal poison. SEE ALSO: Embarking on an oyster trail in New South Walesīut fugu is perfectly safe for consumption, Sawahara emphasises. “In Japan it’s business - I have to earn an income - but overseas, that’s where I’d gladly spend to introduce fugu to foreigners.”įuku Fine Fugu Kaiseki Restaurant at Mohamed Sultan Road had attempted that in 2014 but didn’t get far before folding, and now Guenpin, the first franchise outside Japan for the restaurant chain, is trying again, proving local gourmands possess far more daring than I for playing Russian roulette at dinner and have developed an appetite for deliciously dangerous delights. “To me, what I do is one-half business and one-half a hobby, a dream,” Sawahara says. He transplanted the upscale dining experience to Singapore for a nine-course private dinner for 100 guests at the Forest Restaurant in Equarius Hotel at Resorts World Sentosa last year, for no reason other than to share the culture of fugu with a new audience. The 24-year fugu master helms Osaka Tora Fugu no Kai, his network of five members-only restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka, which began operations out of his Osaka residence in 2010. Already a little uneasy about being served fish that, ill-prepared, can land 30 to 50 people in hospital every year and has claimed more than a few lives in Japan, I’m not comforted by 43-year-old Sawahara playfully mock-retching on the side just as the first bite is taken.īut Sawahara knows what he’s doing. While speaking to Japanese fugu chef Masato Sawahara through an interpreter, platters of tessa, or thinly sliced puffer fish sashimi, with all the accoutrements, arrive on the table. Rarely does one start an interview worrying about not being able to survive it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |