Whale Meat In Japanese Schools

[triton94949]

I once went to a restaurant in Tokyo's Ginza where the English was a little less solid than in most you find in that area. The waitress was charming and cute, so I figured, what the hell, I'll ingratiate myself and safe some work. "Would you order for me? Just bring me the things that you like."

Besides my colleague inviting our waitress to come and live with him, two things happened. The second thing was, the meal ended at about the appetizer level of my normal volume (and I'm a light eater by American standards.)

The first thing that happened was one of the dishes was the best sashimi I have ever tasted in my life, and I have eaten a boat load of the stuff in every kind of restaurant from the crudest to the most refined. I asked my helper what the dish was that I had enjoyed so much.

She replied, with a sweet smile and a heavy accent, "Oi-o."

Not a fish I had ever heard of. I pressed for more info.

"Beeg fish. REEAALLY beeg fish."

Hmm.? Oh my god, Oi-o is whale! I would never have ordered it myself, but heaven help me, it was delicious.

For the record, it didn't look like the photo, which I hope was frozen meat. It looked like the very lean tuna known as maguro, only a bit darker red.

So does it taste like chicken??

 

[Kim]

It's always hard to really understand cultures which are different to our own. For example, millions of people think that those who eat pork are disgusting.

 

[triton94949]

It's always hard to really understand cultures which are different to our own. For example, millions of people think that those who eat pork are disgusting.

Personally I love Japanese food. It is marvelously unique. It is delicate as well as unique. There is a mild sweetness to all of it. I have not tried everything that the Japanese serve. However everything that I have tried is delicious.

I am less troubled by the thought of whale meat than I am troubled by the thought of dog meat or rat meat. But that must be a cultural hangup of my own. I have spoken with people who have tried them all, and they have no problems with it.

 

[Kim]

Personally I wouldn't eat whale - or dog, rat or horse. Probably a few more things as well: monkey brains, insects, cats, snakes...the list is probably quite long. I try not to get too judgemental about what others eat though. My wife, for instance, loves whale-meat - although she would never bring it into our home out of deference to me. Actually even if she did it wouldn't bother me, as long as she didn't expect me to eat it too!

 

[triton94949]

Personally I wouldn't eat whale - or dog, rat or horse. Probably a few more things as well: monkey brains, insects, cats, snakes...the list is probably quite long. I try not to get too judgemental about what others eat though. My wife, for instance, loves whale-meat - although she would never bring it into our home out of deference to me. Actually even if she did it wouldn't bother me, as long as she didn't expect me to eat it too!

Personally I hate liver.

Snake has a chicken/fish taste like halibut. Not bad, actually. Salt and pepper brings out the flavor. And of course with garlic salt you can eat virtually anything and like it.

During the interval between college and grad school, I happened to be leading a detachment of sailors and marines on a desert op. During the hike from Mountain A to Mountain B, a huge snake made the mistake of wandering out into view. A marine had his E-tool out in a flash and decapitated the reptile then skinned it with his K-bar without breaking stride. We all had it for dinner with our C-rats. Gourmet cooking, in the deserts. An experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.

I would not have tried rat, or dog, or cat, or monkey meat.

 

[Snowbear]

Here is the URL to an article about whale meat in Japanese schools.

Whale meat is part of some US school kids' diets as well
And it's meat that comes from hunting the whales to eat them, not the byproducts of research, though the hunters have actually cooperated with researchers by providing samples for their studies...

 

[drbill]

Whale meat is part of some US school kids' diets as well...

Assume you are referring to Alaska. My school lunchroom usually offered the standard hamburger and fries (although for the same $0.40 I could get something much "healthier..." four chocolate donuts and 4 chocolate milks. As a competitive swimmer I burned them off quickly.).

Dr. Bill

 

[Rickg]

Personally I love Japanese food. It is marvelously unique. It is delicate as well as unique. There is a mild sweetness to all of it. I have not tried everything that the Japanese serve. However everything that I have tried is delicious.

I am less troubled by the thought of whale meat than I am troubled by the thought of dog meat or rat meat. But that must be a cultural hangup of my own. I have spoken with people who have tried them all, and they have no problems with it.

Triton,

The 2 most common whale meat products I saw while living in Japan were whale sashimi and whale bacon.

Whale sashimi is like eating thinly sliced raw beef or horse (which are also both served as sashimi in Japan but that is another subject) as opposed to what most Stateside people consider to be sashimi which is pieces of raw fish that are dipped in soy sauce. I ate whale sashimi several times over the years that I lived in Japan (and found it quite good) but not since I have taken up scuba diving.

Whale bacon is mostly blubber with some lean meat attached to one side. Never tried it myself but my Japanese bride said that it used to be quite common when she was growing up on the island of Kyushu, Japan.

I have never had a whale meat hamburger but I would imagine that ground whale meat (not bludder) wouldn't taste much different than ground beef.

I just found the post interesting because it appears that the whaling industry in Japan is now starting to target a much younger "audience". I would imagine they are hoping to indoctrinate them at a very young age that eating whale meat is quite normal.

Rickg

 

[Mako Mark]

This is a difficult issue IMHO. While whaling for species that are threatened or endangered is a travesty, whaling for other species is not much different than any of the many other mammalian species we eat in my (USA) and other countries, is it?

Yes, whales appear to have higher intelligence and that does bother me. Yet we all make our choices as to what animals are slaughtered to provide us with food. Of course I would never eat spotted owl or condor, and most likely not whale either. However, unless folks out there are strictly vegetarians, we all eat the flesh of other species.

Dr. Bill

This is a troublesome topic whenever it comes up, but I like Dr Bills post, I could not imagine a condor or a bald eagle being particularly palatable, however hunger enhances the taste of anything, which is why opportunistic meals such as insects and whales become traditional foods.

I have eaten some of the worlds weirdest foods in my travels, and often thought:

who was the first person to think "lets put these tarantulas on a stick and deep fry them and acompany them with buffalo gall bladder salad"

the answer is very simple: someone that is hungry and has nothing else.

the case that reviving the popularity of meats like american buffalo, alligator, ostrich kangaroo, might have in fact ensured the survival of species facing almost certain extinction.

We can only hope that a demand for the meat, leads to a demand for their survival and responsable resource management.

I wonder how many kids lunches you can get from a whale anyway...

 

[dlndavid]

I wonder how many kids lunches you can get from a whale anyway...

6,349 teenagers can eat .3333333333/whales in 4.5 days