Watch Olympics and eat toxic fish
Chefs in Japan are hoping to reel in a few tourists this summer with a national seafood delicacy that can set diners back hundreds of dollars — and is deadly if not served properly. The potentially lethal fugu pufferfish gets its share of bad press for its toxicity, blandness and inflated price tag. But restaurateurs see a chance to revive its fortunes with the arrival of big-spending visitors attending the Tokyo Olympics. Yukihiro Furukawa, who sells pufferfish slices designed like a dragon at prices up to 34,000 yen ($400) a head, said wealthy tourists are essential to the success of his restaurant in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district. “I would say that during peak season roughly 60 per cent of my customers come from abroad,” he told Reuters. “We’re basically going through an overseas tourist bubble right now.” Restaurants that specialize in the fish — parts of which contain tetrodotoxin, which kill an adult in a matter of hours and for which there is no known antidote — have seen sales plunge from five billion yen (US$59 million) in 2007 to 3.4 billion yen ($40 million) in 2017. Because of its poisonous qualities, and its bland taste, the fish has been difficult to export. But experts say that misses the point. “One thing about the pufferfish is that it’s not really about the fish itself,” professor Masaaki Sano of Kagoshima University said. “It’s about the skill of the chef who cuts it, the presentation. It’s a delicate cuisine — that’s the point.”