home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac 1990
/
1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
/
time
/
041789
/
04178900.019
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-09-17
|
1KB
|
22 lines
BUSINESS, Page 47Business NotesIMPORTS
Do You Dare Eat a Fugu?
Normally people's lives do not flash before their eyes when
they eat sashimi. But a meal of Japanese fugu, or puffer fish, is
no everyday dining experience. Because the fish's internal organs
contain the nerve poison tetrodotoxin, Japanese gourmets rely on
expert chefs to remove the toxic entrails before serving. Yet for
several Japanese diners each year, usually those who clean the fish
themselves, a fugu supper is their last.
Now adventurous diners can sample fugu outside Asia. Last week
eight restaurants in Manhattan began serving the delicacy with
approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which had
conducted a four-year review of the importing venture arranged by
Nobuyoshi Kuraoka, the proprietor of New York City's Nippon
Restaurant. The puffer fish will be processed only by fugu chefs
in the southern Japanese city of Shimonoseki, which has not lost
a customer in 50 years. Japanese government officials will verify
tetrodotoxin levels before the fugu is flash-frozen and flown to
New York. Cost of a full-course fugu meal at Nippon Restaurant:
$160.