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Step 1
Understand the risks that you are taking. Fugu is famous precisely because it can be deadly: its flesh is rife with tetrodotoxin, which paralyzes the body while leaving the brain fully aware of the impending death by asphyxiation. There is no antidote. Fugu can only be prepared with a license and chefs must train for years to earn that privilege.
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Step 2
Find a restaurant that has been properly licensed to serve fugu. These restaurants exist in every major Japanese city, but only one or two dozen exist in the United States , most of which are in New York. Improperly prepared fugu kills dozens of people each year, although a relative minority of deaths occurs in restaurants.
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Step 3
Make a reservation in advance and exercise caution with any restaurant that doesn’t require one. A specially trained chef is usually called in for the occasion. Take a seat at the bar, where you can watch the fugu being prepared. Try to arrange for an older chef with years of experience under his belt. Let the younger chefs practice elsewhere.
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Step 4
Take the prepared food. Very thin slices of the flesh should be arranged in a flower petal formation, with a slice of the skin in the center, and decorated with chopped scallions and spicy radish. Add a few small drops of the halved Japanese lime (sudachi) that should also come with the meal.
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Step 5
Alternating between the flesh and the skin, eat the bits of fugu very slowly with chopsticks. Cleanse your palate every few bites with smooth sake. Do not dip your fugu in soy sauce, even if it were somehow made available. The chef will provide a special, mild sauce if he thinks it is a good idea.
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Step 6
Eat fugu and only fugu. The serving should be large enough to satisfy you anyhow, as you try to enjoy the flavor – which, strangely enough, has sometimes been criticized as fairly unremarkable. Afterward, let the food settle. You may even want to skip dessert.
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Step 7
Tip generously.
