Eat It Raw

When I was a kid, sushi was the most disgusting food I could imagine. Who in their right mind would eat raw fish? As far as I knew, if you didn't cook fish, eating it would be slow death for sure.

Obviously, I was wrong and my tastes have changed greatly. I have since grown to love raw seafood. Before I could stomach sushi, I ate raw oysters with aplomb. Back in the states, I even had occasion to try calamari, uncooked. But I had no idea of the world of bleeding fresh meat awaiting me here in Japan.

The first item on the menu, yuke. This is a Korean dish, found at your average yaki niku Korean barbeque restaurant. Simple recipe: sliced, uncooked beef. The first time I tried it was in a ricebowl/salad dish. That was also the first time I really dug into some raw beef. Once the initial "it didn't kill me" fear was overcome, I was ready to move onto the real deal; straight yuke with a raw egg. As you can see, not so pretty, but very tasty.

Here I am modelling some lovely raw liver. I'm not sure what animal it's from, since they eat just about anything's organs over here, but I would hazard it's cow. It goes well with a little soy sauce, some chopped onion sprouts, and horseraddish. Personally, I'm not a big fan of liver; I don't like the texture - a bit gritty.

This last one was a killer, about $15 for 6 or 7 slices of super-premium beef. Served with some wasabi and soy sauce, this is basically cow sashimi. It's so soft it melts in your mouth. You can also get this in horse meat; usually eaten with thin sliced onions, lemon, and horseraddish. Either way, it's awesome and worth the money, at least once.

The thing I like most about eating all the uncooked food is that it's so un-American. Like I said, I grew up under the impression that raw food meant certain death, everything has to be cooked or you'll catch some terrible disease. Bullshit. As long as the food is properly prepared and stored, there's no problem. Raw fish, beef, chicken, pork, eggs - they eat it all out here. And there's even more....I'm still looking for a restaurant that serves live octopi. I've seen it on video!