Fugu

I suppose it only comes naturally from watching cartoons.  You see someone do something, and then you too want to do it as well.  Why else would parents and politicians cry out for their banning or restrictions.

I speak today of the Simpsons episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" where Homer eats fugu.  This has spawned a maddening search on my part to find where I can be served fugu, preferably here in the United States.  I have found a list of establishments who have licensed fugu chefs on staff, from almost 10 years ago!

For almost my whole class tonight, I have searched in vain for a more recent list of fugu sellers.  It seems that no one has bothered to make a list like this since.  Perhaps no new establishments are offering fugu, and perhaps none of these places have discontinued serving fugu either.  I doubt it, but perhaps.

What I have found is promising though.  Fugu in the U.S. must go through New York City to be inspected before it can go anywhere else.  This fugu is already cut and flash frozen in Japan, limiting risk of death to those unscrupulous enough to serve black market fugu.  Since all fugu has to go through NYC, and my fiance has an aunt in NYC, perhaps next time we go out that way, I can attempt to eat fugu.  There is also at least one restaurant in Chicago, where my fiance has yet another aunt.  So that covers the vaguest tenets of my plan.

Of the possible problems with this plan, first off the fugu season is not particularly long.  By most indicators it runs from December to early February, limiting ordering during most of the year.  Well that cuts out my next tentative trip to Chicago for the Reggie Music festival as a possible fugu trip.  Perhaps I can scout out the restaurant option in Chicago on that trip.

Well, as I have had this thought more than a few times over the course of the last decade or more, and each time it has fizzled out to no more than me going out for local non-fugu sushi, there is every chance in the world that years from now I will come back to the same plan.  Perhaps by then the toxin-free fugu which is becoming more prevalent in Japan will have made it's way over to this side of the pond.  And then I will no longer have to make special trips to far off distant cities to obtain fugu.  Perhaps by then they will no longer have to be cut in Japan first before coming into NYC for inspection and then their destined restaurant.  I may be able to eat fresh fugu which was alive no less than an hour ago with the same confidence that I could eat it today.