I might be convinced to give it a try. But there are less dangerous ways to get tingly bits these days.
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e.g.
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I was thinking internets porn but whatever gobbles your knoblin
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I’ve had fugu a couple times (both raw and cooked), and I remember that I was quite surprised at its lack of flavor. In my opinion, the risk greatly outweighs the reward.
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You certainly can get tora-fugu in the USA, it arrives pre-cleaned and frozen, imported by Wako International, mostly to be served at Restaurant Nippon in NYC, but also available in a few other restaurants.
There are also varieties of puffer fish caught in US coastal waters, the FDA has this to say about domestic puffer fish:
Puffer fish caught from the mid-Atlantic coastal waters of the United
States do not contain these deadly toxins and are considered safe to
eat. They are less expensive than imported puffer fish and may be found
in markets or restaurants. However, puffer fish caught off the east coast of Florida should not be eaten because the entire fish is potentially toxic.
Some puffer fish around Florida carry saxitoxin, structurally distinct from the more well-known tetrodotoxin.
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This. A bland food, with a mild toxicity. Me, I prefer not entrusting my dosing of toxins to non-medically trained individuals, but what do I know…
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On a side note, basashi, raw horse meat sliced really thin and eaten just like sashimi is served in the southern part of Japan. It’s amazingly good. If fugu had the same flavor I’d be willing to risk my life for it.
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This was my thinking too-- how delicious must a fish (or anything) be that you should risk your life to eat it?
I am thinking of all the different varieties of fish I’ve ever eaten, and the most delicious ones were delicious because of a seasoning or sauce they were cooked with, not because of the actual fish flesh itself.
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You’re eating the wrong fish.
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Jack Vance had a parallel food in his DEMON PRINCES novels, called Charnay, a delicious fruit, supposedly the ultimate tasting food, but it has to be prepared correctly or it’s fatal. A banquet full of people are murdered by the villain injecting the poison back into the prepared charnay. There is even an organization of charnay growers who actively stops anyone from breeding a non-toxic charnay, to keep their product exclusive. At one point a food critic is quoted extolling it, and a note is appended remarking he died fairly soon after from eating improperly prepared charnay.
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