A Japanese 10-year-old has become the youngest person authorized to prepare “fugu” pufferfish — a delicacy that can kill if its poisonous parts are not properly removed.
Fifth grader Karin Tabira passed a test this summer that means she is now certified to slice and gut the fish for consumption.
She recently used her new skills to serve a platter of paper-thin slices of fugu sashimi to the governor of southern Kumamoto region where she lives.
Oh, wow. I can’t imagine having knife skills that precise. I’ve looked into this; what you actually need to do to prepare the fish isn’t actually difficult- there are only two organs that need to be removed without puncturing them.
But you still need a steady hand and incredible precision to remove those parts 100% consistently, frankly slicing the fish into ‘paper thin’ sheets would be 10x more difficult- just, if you fuck up a paper thin cut then it’s still fine and edible. Managing to pull off that sort of presentation technique is a really good indicator that this girl is the real deal- if she can make those paper thin slices, she can remove the poisons in her sleep.
I would love to try real sushi one day, but alas. I live in the UK. Best I can do is homemade with stuff from the supermarket.
Thanks!
That’s exactly why I was looking at these comments.
Sounds like it’s essentially the same process you’d use for any other fish, except for the potential consequences of a mistake.
The UK doesn’t have real sushi? Like you can’t even buy sushi grade fish from a local mart and try making it yourself?