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A Meal Deadlier Than Cyanide?
Taco Bell?..................
Tofu?
Taco Bell?
Seems to me we should be hearing about scores of deaths. But I'm not hearing about it. In fact, I did a web search and on an annual basis, between zero and six people die from pufferfish poisoning each year.
So it does seem like by and large, this fish is being handled and prepared properly.
So.... don't eat the fish!
Good Columbo episode about someone using puffer fish as a murder weapon.
First to demonstrate that the fish was "fresh" they brought out all the parts, already cut up on a platter still twitching, that would then be taken back and sliced to be served as courses of sashimi. Then course by course, part by part, it came out. The flavor wasn't much different than any other mild raw fish. But after awhile my lips started to become noticeably numb.
It's that mild neurotoxin effect, supposedly the toxin that Voodoo priests in Haiti use to poison people, making them appear dead, and then dig up the "corpse" to work as an enslaved (literal) zombie. It's that danger of a bit too much of the toxin from the fish's liver being left in the flesh that attracts the diners. And it's why in Japan it's only supposed to prepared by specially trained and licensed chefs. But even there a few people die every year.
Like I said, one time in a licensed restaurant in Japan. Penang, Malaysia? Not on your life.
I have mentioned this to folks and even when teaching school No one had a clue. Now, if more folks would read Free Republic, they would actually learn something.
In my area a similar species is called blowfish. They are delicious, but there’s darned little meat, even on the big ones.