i was greeted with a surprise today when I went on board the Mudskipper boat this morning. Ishak, Rahmat and Salam greeted me with a dish that I never thought I'll try in this lifetime.
Pufferfish curry! Apparently the boatmen had the fortune of catching a huge-ass puffer yesterday (about 0.5m long!) at Semakau Island and as was the usual practice, their catch became lunch the next day for the lucky soul who's doing work-dive.
Anyway, I knew pufferfish were poisonous (poison's found in the liver and ovary I think), but I didn't know how much... until I did my research (read below if you are interested). ~WOW~ I courted death!
In Hawaii, seven deaths have occurred from pufferfish poisoning. In Japan, many have died from pufferfish poisoning because of a popular dish called fugu. Fugu is not a Japanese name, but the genus (the first of an organism's two scientific names) of the type of pufferfish Japanese prefer eating. Fugu pufferfish are not found in Hawaii.
Even though there's a risk of being poisoned or killed by fugu, some people consider it a delicacy and pay high prices to get it. Certain methods of fish preparation take out most of the poison. Japanese chefs who prepare fugu must undergo training in special techniques and then pass rigorous tests to be licensed.
Still, fugu chefs don't remove all of the toxin because part of the fun of eating fugu is the induced sense of euphoria. Some also claim it is an aphrodisiac.
Whatever its effects, eating anything that might contain any amount of tetrodotoxin is not worth the risk. This poison is about 10,000 times more potent than cyanide.
In "Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook" (2003), the FDA reports that the gonads, liver, intestines, skin and flesh of pufferfish can contain levels of tetrodotoxin sufficient to produce rapid and violent death.
Or not. Some pufferfish contain no poison at all.
The reason for this variance is that pufferfish (and other animals) get their toxin from marine bacteria that manufacture it inside the fish. Several kinds of microbes make this deadly poison.
All occur naturally in warm sea water and estuaries throughout the world.
Among these are some bad-boy bugs: Vibrio species, some of which cause cholera and other lethal infections, and Pseudomonas, usually the source of the infection (among others) known as swimmer's ear.
Some pufferfish accumulate these natural, poison-producing bacteria while grazing on algae, invertebrates and decaying plants and animals. The fishes' four big teeth, which form a kind of beak, are ideal for scraping, crushing and cutting such food.
P.S. One of the older malay guys from the boats nearby - Captain Saleh, told me about a useful tip when it comes to pufferfish preparation. After you remove the part of the flesh that contains the poison, wait for 30 min and watch the flesh for any change in colour. If it turns white, throw it away - it's poisoned. If the colour remains the same, you can eat it.
DISCLAIMER: Children, please do not try this at home.
