Fish Head Dinner

Posted on 20. Aug, 2006 @ 11:20 am by in Culture, Food Views: 866

Most Japanese food I can handle.

I eat most sushi and sashimi (items more expensive than UNI, the yellow sea urchin ooze, I tend to not like), I eat all the noodles, even the black squid ink pasta.

For some reason though, the more expensive food gets in Japan… The harder it is for me to stomach.

At a friends wedding this lovely item was served.

Wedding food is some of the most fancy food in Japan… So… Yeah.

Actually, not to mislead anyone… There is actually a type of mashed potato or something inside of the fish head here. Some people would nibble around the eye, but by no means did they eat the entire head.

It would also be wrong to say that fish head is never eaten in Japan.

Remember that old cartoon song? “Fish heads fish heads rolly-polly fish heads. Fish heads fish heads eat them up yum ♪”

One more culture/language point. This fish is “Tai”, Red Snapper. In Japan the Tai is usually served at celebrations. Reason being, to say “congratulations” in the sense of, “good news!” in Japanese, you say 「おめでたい」”omedeTAI” .

Since the last part of the word Omedetai is pronounced the same as the fish, Tai, you get fish head on your plate for dinner. なるほど！！

Heh.

- Harvey

  • Craig

    I wouldn’t be to thrilled about eating that either :\

  • Mike H

    So what did you do with it? Did you feel pressure to eat it? I guess you could spit it up into a napkin.

  • http://www.japannewbie.com Harvey

    Hey Mike H! I tried the stuff inside the head, just one bite. Honestly, it didn’t taste so bad… But just the fact that it was stuffed into a fish head made me unable to eat anymore… I left it on the table… and made an extra effort to eat the other stuff.

    Must have been expensive. Japanese weddings cost a fortune.

  • http://www.livejournal.com Bronwyn Bishop

    i have a friend named tai…lol he’s a fish head

  • Alia

    I LOVE fish heads – the meat around the cheek and just above the eye is the best meat on the fish.Seriously – it’s not like you are eating intestine or brains or anything!!! If you eat fish fillets then it is basically the same thing- just coming from around the head. Larger fish have a lot of meat on the head (tuna etc) It is a real shame that in our culture we throw away so much food! Especially the best tasting parts! PS while I have eaten the eye once, it is not something I particularly like eating.

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