Guest Posted February 22, 2003 Report Share Posted February 22, 2003 Says limbo: unfortunately sharks are becoming an endangered species. Basically because they are being caught, their fins cut off and the living animal is being thrown in to the water again. Yep, agree very much. Shark fins are off the list in TG first class and many other places too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brink15 Posted February 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2003 'Exotic' Japanese food? 'Namako' (sea cucumber) comes in sweet vinegar and is thinly sliced. Takes only about 30 minutes to chew, and tastes like I imagine a plastic guitar plectrum would. One of my Japanese students on Phi Phi kept pointing to sea cucumbers and rubbing her belly. When we got back on the boat I asked her what she meant and she told me Japanese people love eating them. I've seen tons of them over my years teaching diving but the thought of consuming one never occurred to me. Get yourself up to Scotland and order a "pizza supper" (pizza and chips) from a Fish'n'Chip shop. The guy takes a hilariously cheap "pizza" (the ones you can get in freezer stores, ten for a dollar, just dough with a 1mm spread of processed cheese on board), folds it in half and chucks it in the deep frier for a few minutes. After it's soaked up about a gallon of boiling cooking oil, he removes it and hands it to you with a handful of soggy chips wrapped in an old newspaper. When you take the first bite of the pizza, the absorbed oil squirts out all over your shirt. And it tastes like shit. Lovely. (They do "deep fried Mars Bars" too, but I've never had one.) Now fish and chips with some nice malt vinegar I love, but this sounds like an abortion. Thank God the Scottish side of my family left the Island almost 400 years ago. I can take a well made haggis once in a while but that pizza and mars bar fry up sounds disgusting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brink15 Posted February 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2003 I just found out the name of that incredibly expensive Japanese restaurant in Beverly Hills,Ginza Sushi-Ko. It's a take off of a restaurant, maybe restaurant style I'm not sure, called Sushi-Ko on the Ginza. Has anyone been to the one on the Ginza? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limbo Posted February 23, 2003 Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 Hi SS, that's the one, Armadillo. Of course when I told this to a Texan lateron during that same holiday, he started ranting similar about them, not leprosy tho. He had a good laugh about it. Made me feel really good! He did mention it was being aten tho. Checked it out with a Dutch docter later and he said it's no problem, but what does he know about Armadillo's???? So, it seems there's definately a bit of a legend about the Armadillo's. Tatsed very greasy, partly due to the gravy. Oh and BTW, I'm still going strong, that was about 10 years ago I ate it. Cheers, Limbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted February 23, 2003 Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 "...One of my Japanese students on Phi Phi kept pointing to sea cucumbers and rubbing her belly..." If she'd been pointing to sea "cucumbers" and rubbing her crotch you'd have been in for a more interesting evening. :hubba: j :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted February 23, 2003 Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 "...One of my Japanese students on Phi Phi kept pointing to sea cucumbers and rubbing her belly. When we got back on the boat I asked her what she meant and she told me Japanese people love eating them." Yeah, Brink15, the Japanese have a stubbornly clung to repertoire of foodstuffs that they are convinced that only Japanese can eat. This is part of the ludicrous and dangerous "nihonjinron" manifesto, advocated by many right wing academics and politicians in Japan, that the Japanese race is "special and unique" physiologically and culturally (famous example: a ban was placed on imported skis in the 1970s because Japanese snow was pronounced to be different from snow in any other country ). It's even inscribed in their everyday language. If a Japanese wants to know how you feel about, say, raw fish, (s)he'll not say (in Japanese, or even in English) "Do you like sushi?" but "Can you eat sushi?" because they're convinced that foreigners really can't. But in my experience they're nearly always wrong when they proudly assert that non-Japanese "can't eat" stuff they think is reserved solely for Japanese stomachs: natto (fermented bean curd), taco (octopus), ikura (fish eggs) , unagi (eel), basashi (raw horse flesh) are all delicious and eaten often by non-japanese, but tell a Japanese that you have natto for breakfast and they'll give you a shocked and slightly disappointed look then probably mutter "Hen na gaijin..." ("Wierdo foreigner...") because you've just shattered their illusion that Japanese are a race apart. (The same with language: Japs blame their incompetence regarding speaking English on the fact that their brains are singularly attuned to the Japanese language, which only Japanese can speak. It really pisses them off when they meet a foreigner who speaks fluent Japanese ) Raw sea cucumber is about the only food in Japan that had me putting my hands up and heading for the exit. Not because I "can't" eat it, I just don't want to. It just seems a waste of chewing time: no taste and the texture of tough polystyrene. Sea cucumbers are so ugly too. I suspect that most Japanese don't actually like namako that much, they just pretend to get off on it to freak foreigners out and uphold this idea that they're somehow special . Rant over . "Now fish and chips with some nice malt vinegar I love..." You'd be in trouble in Scotland, then. You get "salt and sauce" on your chips up there ("sauce" being watered down brown sauce). Some shops have vinegar, but you've got to be quick and ask for it before the dude drowns your purchase in shit-coloured sauce, and the vinegar's always watered down anyway which means that the chips become soggy as if rained upon . I used to take mine home and put my own undiluted vinegar and salt on . I don't think anyone's mentioned "insects" on the extravagant/exotic food front yet. The Bargirls seem to love 'em, but I think I'll stick to beer. What are those bugs like to eat? j :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brink15 Posted February 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 Jack, Amazing insight on Japanese mentality. I have always heard how extreme the Japanese racism is but never first hand. I'll remember when I ever get to Japan to eat the most extreme stuff in hopes to put some local off of their superiority complex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limbo Posted February 23, 2003 Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 hi Jack, eating insects, been there done that. Limbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limbo Posted February 23, 2003 Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 Says Fiery Jack: "...One of my Japanese students on Phi Phi kept pointing to sea cucumbers and rubbing her belly..." If she'd been pointing to sea "cucumbers" and rubbing her crotch you'd have been in for a more interesting evening. :hubba: j :: Jack, he missed out on that one, his divemaster got the goodies instead :hubba: Cheers, Limbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brink15 Posted February 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2003 Hey I had a girlfriend at the time............... .......OK I f'd up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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