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Dining Japan's Most Dangerous Dish Requires A Special Chef's License To Prepare It
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Japan's Most Dangerous Dish Requires A Special Chef's License To Prepare It

Part of the fun of exploring places is trying new foods, even if they might be dangerous, like the potentially poisonous fugu aka blowfish.

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By: JESSICA POITEVIEN Published: Dec 01, 2021 04:00 PM IST

Japan's Most Dangerous Dish Requires A Special Chef's License To Prepare It
Credit: Courtesy of Setouchi DMO

For many travellers, part of the fun of exploring the world is trying new-to-them foods that are unavailable back home. Sometimes, that means eating parts of an animal they’re not used to or chomping on insects and unfamiliar fruits. In Yamaguchi Prefecture of Japan, that could mean trying a dish that’s potentially life-threatening. By

Japan’s potentially poisonous blowfish

Fugu (or blowfish) is by far the country’s most dangerous dish, and it’s the one that Shimonoseki is most known for. If improperly prepared, fugu can be toxic to those who consume it, so only registered chefs with special licenses can create meals with this finicky fish.

Blowfish
Credit: Courtesy of Setouchi DMO

In fact, eating fugu is so dangerous that it was outlawed in the 16th century, though many secretly kept the tradition alive. In 1888, Itō Hirobumi, the first prime minister of Japan, ate a dish with the blowfish during a visit to the Shunpanro restaurant in Shimonoseki. He was so impressed by its flavour that he decided to lift the ban and declared Shimonoseki the “home of fugu.”

Blowfish
Credit: Courtesy of Setouchi DMO

Shunpanro may have been the first restaurant in Japan to be officially licensed in preparing dishes with fugu, but many others now serve the poisonous puffer. Today, the most common way to eat fugu fish is to cut it into thin slices, wrap it with spring onions, and dip it in vinegar and soy sauce. Sometimes, the slices are so thin they become transparent. Other famous dishes include fried fugu, fugu hot pot, a fugu rice porridge, and hirezake (a hot sake with a grilled fugu fin in it).

Fugu may be the main attraction in Shimonoseki, but the city — and the Yamaguchi Prefecture in general — is also home to many other seafood delights. The area is particularly known for its preparation of anglerfish liver, sometimes called the “foie gras of the sea,” and creamy sea urchin dishes.

Related: Tokyo Travel Guide: Things To Do In The City Of Wonders!

Written By

JESSICA POITEVIEN

JESSICA POITEVIEN

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