Deadliest cocktail in the world?

Before I begin...

I promised to share my best packaged ramen hacks. But, want to give you guys time to weigh in with your own! Please enter your favorite ways to customize and hopefully, improve packaged ramen, in the comments section for my December 6 post about the Ramen Expo (or this one). Now, on to my first Japan cocktail post!

Japan likes to live on the edge.

Beneath the calm and polite veneer of Japanese everyday life I've been able to perceive some of the traditions of a samurai past: bold, risk taking, competitive, and even silly. One example is their love of eating fugu, or the puffer fish.

These unique fish have spines all over, and puff up when threatened. They also harbor a deadly toxin. Yet the people of Japan have been eating them for at least 3,000 years, before even agriculture.  

Chefs must take a special training and become certified before they can handle this fish!

Deadly Cocktails.

So...last night I had dinner with Museum friends. We had fabulous sushi, unbelievably fresh, in a restaurant that was so tiny it had seating for maybe 20 people, 6 of them at the counter.

A nice fishy gelatin appetizer, very delicate in flavor, with salty tangy dashi sauce.

Osaka's own Goshun sake, smooth as velvet, no, smooth as gelatin. This was our warm up drink.

Tender mackerel or saba slices with a bit of ginger.

Squid, salmon eggs, and toro or tuna belly, which literally melts in your mouth. Japan is a member of a group of nations that have successfully brought Pacific blue tuna back from the brink: this beautiful fish is on its way to recovery.

They encouraged me to try a pufferfish (fugu) fin cocktail, called hirazake in Japanese. The fugu expert chef behind the counter just pulled the poor fish out of the tank and thunked it on the head. The fins were cut off and charred with a small torch, then popped in a cup and hot sake was poured over. The cap was put on and the whole thing allowed to steep for about 5 minutes. 

Here it is: the Deadliest Cocktail as American bartenders like to breathlessly call hirazake. 

Nope, I didn't keel over.

Obviously, the chefs knew their craft!

There was a slight fishiness to the drink, but basically a nice salty char reminiscent of piles of leaves burning and a warm slide into the belly... This is a seasonal, late fall/early winter cocktail, and mostly an older guys' beverage, they say. 

After finishing the drink I nibbled on the fin too, and my Japanese friends all went, oooh!! I guess I impressed them? They told me that quite a few people do die each year from consuming fugu. The rest of this fish was turned into a variety of sashimi dishes for us and other guests...I consider each day after last night, to be a gift!

The dinner party! Rosella, the lady with the dark hair, joined me in drinking the hirazake.