RANT 'N' RAVE
Fishy Business
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Illustration by Dot |
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I always try everything once, that's my
motto, and in my more than one year of living in Japan I have put all sorts of strange
foods in my mouth, and have even gone so far as to like them too. Amazing!
Let's see, there was the basashi, raw horse for those of you not in the know, and
another time some sort of sea cucumber in a sauce. There was the inago, which are
grasshoppers (like the ones you find in the field behind your house back home) cooked to a
crunchy crisp with sake and soy sauce, and of course there is sashimi and sushi. I really
love both. It is my humble opinion that fish tastes 100 times better when it is raw than
when it is cooked, an opinion which everybody in my family finds quite disturbing. To them
raw fish is something seagulls eat on the beach at low tide.
All these weird and wonderful foods, however, have had one thing in common. Before they
were set before me they were all mercifully dead. To those of you who can see where I am
going with this and wish to stop reading, by all means do so; the rest of this isn't
pretty.
It all started when I was at an izakaya with my friend and we decided to order a sashimi
plate - like I said, I love the stuff. It came and was set down before us and I saw that
there was a fish on the plate. I should be more clear: The fish's head, backbone and tail
were there but his body had been cut away and set in neat little slices beside him. That
wouldn't have been too bad except as soon as the waiter left the fish started jumping and
twitching. I stared at it for a good 30 seconds in open-mouthed horror before I managed to
collect myself.
My friend (Japanese) assured me that this was not unusual in Japan (while having a good
laugh at my expense), but it was a first for me. The fish continued to jump and gasp for a
good ten minutes. How he managed it without anything except a spine is beyond me. All the
while he was staring at me, as if to say, "You're responsible for this!" To top
it all off, the poor little guy was skewered with a long stick. Well, I had lost my
appetite but we were determined that this sacrifice wasn't to be for nothing, so with a
little wasabi and soy sauce we finished him up. Needless to say it was really fresh. As we
were walking out, we passed by the fish tank and I said a little prayer for his brothers
and sisters. Amen.
Many thanks to reader Michael Beddall for this Rant.
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