whats for dinner?

so most brits have a hard time comprehending japanese cuisine. it's all fancy and arty and that. and if you eat it in britain it's at a rip off house with medium to poor quality ingredients, whipped up by some teenager just out of catering school who's only taste of asia has been spare ribs and bbq sauce with chicken balls and MG sweet and sour sauce from the local 'dragon wok'. so I guess it's a fair misconception. if that makes sense.

I have to say - I even winced a little recently when I was confronted with (raw) chicken sashimi (see also tramps mucus -06.05). this was something I hadn't been told about. and jesus - I'm in asia! I'll get SARS or some mad flu strain that's incurable and I'll sweat away my final hours in a country hospital before breathing my final breath (thank god I got repatriation in my insurance).

but no - it was nice. aided perhaps by the soy sauce. but certainly a beautiful texture and being japan the chicken was probably killed in the kitchen and bought from a neighbour (I had it in a very rural area in shikoku). anyway - I trust.

whale-on-the-menu is another well known fact about japan. I saw this poster on the door of a restaurant in kyoto - choose your cut. infact choose your bloody whale. sperm or blue? it's not cheap though and it's becoming less popular as people become more understanding and sympathetic with the cause (there actually aren't that many left to eat). apparently whale spotting is becoming a more popular leisure activity for more modern types in japan. I'm not sure if this is on whaling boats and you can 'harpoon-your-own' for dinner, or if it's more of a WWF/greenpeace venture. probably the latter.

but it's out there - you can get it if you pay. man, you can get pigs ears, raw horse (okay - raw anything), varying degrees of deadly blowfish, fermented soy beans. at the end of the day - whale's just another tradition and some traditions die hard. that doesn't mean I agree or not. I've never even tasted the stuff. but it's far from being an underground business. although whaling is banned (except for research purposes - and japan seems to do a lot of research...) it is still very publicly sold at reputable businesses. and this being japan - you know it's not frozen.