So I saw this challenge and thought "Is there really any kind of food that frightens me?"

Well, certain textures and tastes really put me off, but nothing that goes so far as to drive dread into my burning heart.

Today I was treated to a lovely lunch at Hatsu Hana, one of Chicago's best restaurants for sushi. I love me some sushi. It is delicious, if sometimes a bit expensive; I never turn down sushi. I am a huge fan of yellowtail, tuna, tempura, and oh yeah I should probably explain what sushi is for those who don't know.

Sushi is a Japanese food consisting of rice and some other ingredients, often sliced fish and sometimes condiments like spicy mayo and tobiko, which are tiny colorful fish eggs. Sushi is often prepared as much for presentation as for taste and most chefs are a delight to watch, especially when they use a butane torch to sear certain types of rolls. Sushi often comes in rolls; the rice and ingredients are usually wrapped in seaweed or rice paper. Sushi is tasty.

Back to tobiko. It's fish eggs. Tiny colorful fish eggs. They come from flying fish. Sometimes other kinds of sushi have other kinds of fish eggs. Sometimes they are bigger. Like Salmon roe. Salmon eggs are about the size of currants or tiny grapes. And I imagined they would taste like the insides of a fish. Even worse, I imagined that they would make it down my throat and into my guts where they would hatch, but instead of salmon, these guys would get loose and start swimming around in there.


Now that's some scary shit, as the kids say these days.


So I was challenged by my date to eat the Ikura. The Salmon roe. The deadly viperfish eggs that would hatch deadly viperfish inside of me and cause deadly viperfish to eat their way out of my small intestines.

My date was kind enough to document the defeat of yet another of my horrible viperfish-based fears.



Oh, and it tasted like the insides of a fishbelly.