Deadly Delicacy: Fugu

This is my first try on fugu. It was really such a pleasure to be invited to taste their fugu!

Wild fugu is more poisonous than the breed ones.

It is a deadly delicacy as people died from eating fugu long time ago this is when nobody knows abou the poison it contains.

It also has to depends on how strong your immune system can take the poison.

The picture below is a plate of fugu sashimi neatly arranged like a flower.

FUKU Fine Fugu Kaiseki Restaurant serves the bred and wild torafugu (tiger puffer fish) which is 100% POISON-FREE as the poisonous parts which are the liver, heart and ovaries are already removed in Japan by highly-skilled chefs before exporting to Singapore. I can still post this means I'm in a good condition!

You can really trust Chef Koji on his skills with 20 years of experience!

Every chefs that serve fugu around the world must have a license.

By the way, this is Executive Chef Koji Tsukamoto. To have a better understanding of the fugu, he show us how he prepares the fugu.

While he prepares the sashimi, Sous Chef Toshikazu Miyanagi will be preparing the other dishes. Chef Koji is holding the fugu inner skin on the left photo and the outter skin on the right photo.

Why it fugu dish so expensive?

The fugu especailly the skin is high in collagen and proteins while low in calories. Moreover, fugu has poisonous parts that requires highly-skilled chef to remove and prepare.

The knives that he uses.

The course menu is rated from $150 (6-course farmed fugu) to $580 (9-course wild fugu) per pax.

Our meal consists of:

• A la carte thinly sliced fugu sashimi (with outter skin)

• Lightly boiled fugu skin (inner skin)

• Deep fried fugu

• Grilled milt

• Fugu hotpot with vegetables (Nabe)

• Fugu Japanese style porridge

• Seasonal dessert

He starts to slice the sashimi, it is thinly sliced that we can see through the decorations of the plate. This plate is for a full course meal.

Whereas this plate is the a la carte meal with the fugu skin placed at the side.

This is the outter skin of the fugu. It is very springy! However, it doesn't really has much taste in it so it can be dipped into the sauces to have more taste.

The waitress taught us how to eat fugu in Japanese traditional style.

• Firstly, place 2 slices of the sashimi on the plate.

• Next, put a few slices of the skin on the sashimi.

• Then, add a few of chives into it.

• Lastly, we can start to roll the sashimi like the photo below.

The sashimi is very chewy and it has light-sweetness in it if I eat it plain.

The photo below are the dressings they prepared for us to dip.

• Wasabi with the soy sauce (right)

• Spicy raddish with ponzu shoyu sauce and diced spring onions (center-left)

This is how it looks like when I dipped the ponzu dressings.

It goes really well with ponzu shoyu dressings as well as the ingredients that were added in the roll. Ponzu sauce is like vinegar, sour but the same time a bit salty. I would prefer ponzu dressings than wasabi because it goes better with a sour taste.

This plate below is the lightly boiled fugu inner skin. The texture is like chicken meat but it is still as chewy as the sashimi. There is also ponzu shoyu dressings to eat it with.

If you're not really used to raw meat but love eating healthy, then maybe this will suits you more!

Next is deep fried fugu! This is my favourite of all! It is the fugu cheek that are coated with batter first then deep fried. It is served with coarse sea salt but I prefer without the salt because it gives away the fried fugu taste.

I like it when the lime is being squeezed all over on the fugu. I agreed with Little Miss Bento, the lime juice kind of balance the taste of the fried fugu which makes me want to have more.

I also agreed with SETHLUI, it is crispy on the outside while tender on the inside. The meat inside is really so different from the raw and boiled fugu and this fried version has no chewiness inside.

The marination is perfectly done but most of them contains fish bones which stops me from enjoying the food.

Next is.... yes, fugu sperms! It is called grilled milt. I know most of you may find it disgusting or weird, that's what I thought when they served me this. But, try not to imagine when eating it, just sit back and enjoy the food!

I tried without the lime first, the lightly grilled part taste like prawn skin and it has creamy filling which enhance the overall taste.

After that is fugu hotpot with vegetables, also called Nabe. The tray that the waitress is holding contains the fugu cheeks, mouths, mushrooms, springy clear glass noodles and tofu.

We are served with the more traditional type, the Tecchiri soup base, a very clear and light-sweetness soup. This cooked fugu is sweeter than the sashimi because of the ingredients added in. The fugu can also be dipped with the ponzu sauce.

The fugu mouth

The fugu cheek which also contains fish bone, is hard for me to enjoy the food properly.

After the hotpot, the waitress remvoed the cooked items from the pot. Chef Toshi then adds in the Japanese cooked rice then the beaten egg to the remaining of the soup in the pot.

The small plate contains shio konbu (salted kelp) which is sour and salty to add tasteness to the porridge. The chef said add one or two pieces to the spoonful of porridge will do.

Without the salted kelp, the porridge is already sweet which has already enough taste to it.

Last but not least, one scoop of yuzu sorbet! It is so refreshing, not too sweet and there are bits of the citrus in it which adds to the texture.

It was a rare opportunity and experience for us to get to taste fugu and learn more about Japanese culture after commmunicating with the 2 Chefs. Fugu is getting popular in Singapore but I doubt that this is a dish that Singaporean will always eat unless they are rich or they love Japan food.

Overall:

• Service 4/5

• Ambience 4/5

• Food 4.5/5

• Worthy: 4/5

FUKU Fine Fugu Kaiseki Restaurant

14 Mohamed Sultan Road #01-01

Singapore 238963

Tel: 6235 8216 SMS: 9671 0560

Opening Hours:

Monday - Sunday 6:00 PM - 11:00 PM (dinner time only)

Website: http://www.fugu-fuku.com

Please book 5 days in advance to have the private room / to order the wild fugu