Saturday, June 16, 2012

A Living Balloon that kills!

Guys, here is a fascinating marine   - The PUFFER FISH.




Puffer fish is also known as puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, toadfish, toadies, honey toads. Puffer fish are generally believed to be the second–most poisonous vertebrates in the world, after the golden poison frog.  It belongs to the family of Tetraodontidae,  
which mean 4 teeth, which helps them to hold crustaceans and mollusks, having hard shells.

Biologists think puffer fish, also known as blowfish, developed their famous “inflatability” because their slow, somewhat clumsy swimming style makes them vulnerable to predators. In lieu of escape, puffer fish use their highly elastic stomachs and the ability to quickly ingest huge amounts of water (and even air when necessary) to turn themselves into a virtually inedible ball several times their normal size. Some species also have spines on their skin to make them even less palatable.
A predator that manages to snag a puffer before it inflates won’t feel lucky for long. Almost all puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough toxin in one puffer fish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.


 FUGU- A rare delicacy


 

Amazingly, the meat of some puffer fish is considered a delicacy. Called fugu in Japan, it is extremely expensive and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know that one bad cut means almost certain death for a customer. In fact, many such deaths occur annually.

The restaurant preparation of fugu is strictly controlled by the law in Japan and several other countries, and only chefs who have qualified through rigorous training are allowed to deal with the fish. However, the domestic preparation occasionally leads to accidental death. Fugu is served as sashimi and chirinabe. Some consider the liver the tastiest part but it is also the most poisonous, and serving this organ in restaurants was banned in Japan in 1984.Fugu has become one of the most celebrated and notorious dishes in Japanese cuisine.  The most good-looking (and the largest) Japanese restaurant has (finally) opened in Mumbai. (More about the food, service and pricing later). It is also the only restaurant serving the deadly, poisonous, celebrated, expensive 'Fugu' (Barely 20 restaurants in the US serve it and the European Union has banned it). 



It takes two years of intensive training to cook fugu!!! If anyone had watched Glutton for punishment program on TLC, they would know Bob blumer had learnt and cooked fugu in just 5 days! WOW...

 There are more than 120 species of puffer fish worldwide. Most are found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water. They have long, tapered bodies with bulbous heads. Some wear wild markings and colors to advertise their toxicity, while others have more muted or cryptic coloring to blend in with their environment.

Now tell me Fish lovers, will you dare to eat fish that kills???

No comments:

Post a Comment