16058.08_FuguDinner

A dinner of raw fugu (puffer-fish) served in a ryokan, or Japanese inn, in the southern city of Shimonoseki. One of the world's most expensive foods, the flesh of the fugu is a national delicacy, and meals in a speciality restaurant can cost a few hundred dollars. Fugu eating also carries a risk of poisoning, as the liver and the sexual organs of the female conatin tetrodotoxin (TTX), a toxin 250 times more deadly than cyanide, weight for weight. There is no antidote, and each year, despite elaborate precautions that include licensing fugu chefs, a few people die. RECIPES AVAILABLE