Try Before You Die

For those who dare, the world offers a host of strange and exotic dishes to test your nerves as well as your palate.

- Dominic Bliss

Beware the dreaded fugu puffer fish. This aquatic delicacy, which you’ll find on restaurant menus all over Japan, contains a lethal neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin. Japanese chefs have to undergo years of training, pass a tough exam and obtain a licence before they’re allowed loose on the creature – which is reassuring to know, since just one slip of the knife can result in death at the dinner table.

Organs within the puffer fish, such as the liver, contain the toxin, small amounts of which will paralyse your muscles, stop you breathing and ultimately asphyxiate you.

Tetrodotoxin is tasteless, odourless and there’s no known antidote. One of the most famous cases of death by fugu was in 1975, when celebrated Japanese actor Bando Mitsugoro VIII insisted on being served the fish’s liver, claiming he was immune to the poison. It was to be his finale.

Nowadays, thanks to strict regulations, deaths are rare – but not unknown. Cocky amateur chefs and fishermen who confuse species come a cropper from time to time.

The attraction of fugu is hard to fathom – it doesn’t even taste that good, and has a chewy texture, like a raw cartilaginous fish such as skate.

Donald Richie, the (late) author of A Taste of Japan, summed it up well: “There is a sense of occasion when you go to eat it, heightened by the chance that it could be the last supper. It’s also a form of gustatory conspicuous consumption because fugu is expensive. I suppose you could call it ‘event eating’; the chef has an ‘off’ night and you’re curtains.”