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You can still eat fugu in Japan in restaurants wherechefs

prepare beautiful plates of thinly sliced raw fugu for $500.

Fortunately, nowadays, fugu chefs must have training and

a special license. They have to pa^san exam: in 20 nggut^^ i

they must divide a fish into edltfe ancPtoxic parts, label the ^

parts with plastic tagsfblack for edible, red for toxic), make

it into sashimi, and prepare a beautiful arrangement on a-'

piaie. Łasi year, 900 candiuai.es took Iiie exam, bu! only

63 percent of them passed. Thev are not allowed to serve the. „ ,

^{r r} - >-uw-o

liver or other toxic parts.

Scientists are not surę about the origin of the fugus poison. Tamao Noguchi, a refceani&erat Nagasaki Umversity, believes that the secret is in the fugus diet. Puffer fish, he explains, take in torins when they eat smaller animals like ' wdfms or sh$fltish that ^ntain toxic bacteria. In experinjeng, Noguchi raised several fugu in his laboratory and KcftKem a special diet. Their bodies did nof cofilain^e^oxin.

^Noguchi hopes that hisresearcli wll make fugu liyer ^

'hYaifahle^n restaurants in the futurę. “Its a great cfćtl&y₎^wl

he says. “Once you eat it, you cannot stop.” Japan bannM^^

the sale of fugu liyer in 1983, because; hundreds of peopie

had died from eating just a little too much of it or eating il °'------ ^D

by nfistake. lf Noguchi can produce nontqxię fugu, the laws could be changed.

But would nontoHC fugu really be the same? Some people think the faste would be just as delicious. But Noguchi says it would actuajly ^e a sad day for the fish.

“Arter all, he says, “a fugu without its poison is like a samurai without his sword.”

29333 tekst5 (2)

29333 tekst5 (2)

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