For some people, food is an experience of flavors and the
opportunity to try something different and unusual. For Jenny,
eating adventurously is really a kind of interpersonal connection,
less about fearlessness or the specific tastes than a curiosity about
the people behind the culture and food.
Buttherearepeoplewhoarenotdrivenpurelybycuri-
osity about cultures or exotic tastes. There are people driven by
danger. Nearly all of the foodies Iinterviewed mentioned fugu.
Served in paper-thin slices by expert chefs, fugu combines
luxury with a high-stakes gamble. The intestines, ovaries, and
liver of fugu (or blowfish) contain a poison called tetrodotoxin,
which is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide. The toxin is so
potent that a lethal dose is smaller than the head of a pin,
and a single fish has enough poison to kill 30 people. Because
of the high risk, chefs must undergo two to three years of
training to obtain a fugu-preparing license, and such expertise
raises the price of a fugu dish to upwards of $200. But this
hasn’t stopped the Japanese – about 40 kinds of fugu are caught
in Japan, and people consume 10,000 tons of the fish
every year.
Although all of the fearless foodies mentioned fugu, Jimmy
was one of the few foodies that I interviewed who had tried it. “Even
as a kid I knew about pufferfish. And I’m pretty sure everyone
knows that the chef has to prepare it just right or you can nick
the fish and that toxin can seep into the meat and you can get very
sick and even die. But if you know what you’re doing, it’s not such
a big deal. So I read up on it before my trip and there are good
licensed chefs. I was in Osaka and there’s numerous restaurants
that specifically focus on fugu. I got a sample platter and it was
served five different ways – in a soup, raw, and cooked. It made my
lips tingle a little bit, but it seemed relatively safe.”
“What’s it taste like?”
“Like flounder.” He sighed. “Not that exciting. I was actually
a little let down.”If you are not a foodie, or a high sensation-seeker, you may
ask yourself why someone would order strange food, that borders
on being disgusting or one that might actually kill you? If you’ve
ever wondered why someone would routinely order the strangest
or even most disgusting thing on the menu, you might be asking
the wrong question. The better question might be “Why not?”65 / The Everyday Life of a High Sensation-SeekerDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:18:13, subject to the Cambridge