Fugu: The World's Most Dangerous Food

Danger: It's a Death Fish!

One of the all time classic episodes of The Simpsons is one in which Homer Simpson experiences for the first time the delight of Japanese cuisine. All goes well until he makes this particular demand of the waiter: "Fugu me!" After eating blowfish that was prepared by an associate chef-the head chef was outside enjoying the, er, instructional abilities of elementary schoolteacher Mrs. Krabappel. Because blowfish must be expertly prepared, one ends the meal either thoroughly sated or, well, dead. Homer goes through an existential crisis upon finding out that he may have less than 24 hours to survive. As Homer muses when thinking about how trying something new turned out less than completely satisfying, "I never heard of a poisoned pork chop!"

All fun aside, however, fugu can technically be called the most dangerous food alive. Or, well, dead. Fugu is the name given to prepared blowfish. Sometimes known as puffer fish. In a sense, a night out for fugu is sort of like the Russian roulette of eating. In fact, if you are one of those personalities who enjoy things like base jumping, scuba-less deep diving and watching Joan Rivers, then fugu is just the food experience you've been waiting for. Like all those things, there is always just the slightest bit of risk of death involved. Or, at least serious bodily harm.

The ovaries, roe and liver of the blowfish all contain a certain toxin which can be quite lethal. Just consuming a tiny drop of this toxin pretty much guarantees some kind of paralysis and, in extreme cases, can leave you pushing up daisies. Boy, if just hearing that doesn't make you want to go out right now and order fugu, I just don't know what's wrong with you. The really scary part is that all it takes is one tiny little slip of the knife during preparation to get that toxin into the parts you eat.