Torafugu

We ate fugu and lived to bring you this post!

On my last day in Osaka, I still haven’t had the chance to sample takoyaki, okonomiyaki or oden, some of the dishes unique to Osaka. Determined to try out at least one of these unique dishes, Naoki and I headed out to Dōtonbori.

With so many choices, we reasoned that we would forgo takoyaki, okonomiyaki and oden given these foods are also available in Melbourne, though probably nowhere close to the real thing. Through information gathered at a food guide booth on the street, we decided it was a toss up between crab stick or pufferfish. The choice was clear. We couldn’t care less about crabs, real or manufactured.

Even deciding on a fugu restaurant wasn’t easy given there were so many, which can be identified by huge fugu lanterns or models hanging outside of each of the restaurants. See more pictures of Dōtonbori here, I was advised to stop taking pictures at one point because we spotted some yakuza. Later after dinner, we would leave the restaurant to find a small crowd gathered around a yakuza lying side-down on the street, bleeding from his head. His companions were slapping his thighs in an attempt to keep him awake, presumably while others in the group sought for help. I looked around and saw some tourist types taking pictures of the commotion.

Customers tuck into the steaming bowls of noodles standing by the store counter.

Kinruyu Ramen store was featured in one of the Osaka landmark shots for Jetstar.

This 10-storey high Glico mascot is an icon of Osaka.

We settled on this banquet for 5,000¥ per person, which features torafugu sashimi, and cooking the pufferfish in a nabe.

Fugu ingredients for the nabe

Nestled amongst the Asian vegetables, enoki, shiitake, zucchini, tofu and shiratake are various body parts of the fugu. Lying on the topmost is the skin — which according to my, ahem, Wikipedia research — contains lethal amounts of tetrodotoxin. Below, the less toxic parts like ara, a bony section, and various fleshy parts.

The toxins play an important part in imparting a unique sensation upon tasting. Some chefs prepare the fish so there is a minute amount of poison in the meat, giving a prickling feeling and numbness on the tongue.

Condiments and dipping sauce

Every part of the fish will be dipped in a mixture of soy sauce, this orange purée and diced scallions, which we will soon discover why.

Fugu Sashimi

First on the menu is fugu sashimi, consisting of flesh and skin. I’m unsure of how to embrace the taste, but raw fugu flesh is pretty tasteless — almost like raw squid, though less fishy. Its skin is almost leathery like konnyaku, and tasteless too. I’m guessing that’s where the orange purée and scallions come into play.

I recall a slight tingling and numbing sensation, however I wasn’t sure if that was caused by the toxin, the acidic dipping sauce or the sheer delight from tasting fugu for the first time.

Fugu-chiri

Next up, we dropped the various ingredients into the dashi stock to cook through. First up is the ara, a bony part of the pufferfish. The waitress advised a cooking time of 3 minutes of each of the fugu parts.

Fugu ara

As the title of this blog post suggests, the texture of the cooked flesh of a fugu feels a lot like chicken, maybe more tender and succulent like a poussin or frog’s legs but tasteless.

Random fugu body part

Here is another body part, boneless, and more fish-like in texture. Of all the fish I’ve tasted, this body part reminds me of Orange Roughy.

Fugu so good we had to take a ciggie break.

For the first time in 2, maybe 3, years I’ve lit up another ciggie but this one stank so much I put it out halfway through. Now I remember I only used to smoke menthols.

The pièce de résistance of tonight’s banquet — shirako, or gonads of the pufferfish.

These glistening and quivering mounds of delights, even in its raw state, look unlike the other fleshy parts we had earlier consumed. I was hoping the taste would be otherworldly, and a little less chickeny for a change.

Again, my Wikipedia research tells me, the gonads contain lethal amounts of the toxins. Yummy!

According to our waitress, torafugu are asexual but that still didn’t answer my question of which sex organs are these little white parcels. I am no marine biologist but Wikipedia tells me ovaries.

Waitress advised 3 minutes of cooking for the gonads, rendering the gonads into a muddled mess in the simmering stock, which I could only scoop up with a spoon. Again into the soy sauce mix the gonads go.

On the first taste, fond childhood memories of boiled pig’s brains instantly flooded into my mind. I let the gunk swirl around my tongue a little to savour the taste before I swallowed. The texture was indeed like boiled brains, meaty but also distinctively fishy. The ovaries, those pinkish orange bits hanging off the rounds of scallops, could possibly be a close comparison in terms of taste.

Boiled pufferfish gonads definitely beat its flesh hands down in both the taste and texture departments, in my opinion. This would taste so good, whether on its own, or in the silly orange purée soy sauce mix, or even in caramelised soy sauce and sliced chilli padi.

I miss boiled pig’s brains so much, or perhaps it is my grandmother that I miss and haven’t seen for 2 years. She had prepared all of my meals when I lived at home. Brains are one of the dishes she’d prepare whenever she finds the time to fuss with tweezing the blood capillaries out of the brains.

Zōsui made from fugu-chiri

The final part of the meal is zōsui, or congee, made from the leftover fugu and dashi stock. We had not anticipated this part of the meal and had already finished most of the vegetables. Feeling quite full already, we went ahead eating the congee anyway.

This one tasted so, so good and so familiar — eggy, meaty, fishy, starchy and full of carbs, like a comfort food I would have when feeling ill or on afternoons of special festivals back home.

If left to your own devices, fugu zōsui is one of those dishes you would consume the entire pot of and then end up hating yourself for it. And that we did.

Zōsui

The banquet was definitely worth the 5,000¥. I’ll definitely do this again, but will make it a point to leave some room for the boiled gonads and zōsui.

The order of which the various parts of the pufferfish were served up is clearly well-planned. The sashimi naturally as the entrée for its taste is the most delicate; then comes the main course of the various fleshy parts simmered in stock; the climax of the banquet the boiled gonads; and finally, with the rich and complex-tasting zōsui as the perfect dénouement.

Merchandise at the fugu restaurant