Sashimi, beyond fish

[jtnippon1985]

I have decided to try and kick my "let's eat some far out stuff" mode to the next level. I want to try the fabled frog sashimi.

I have Chinese market nearby that sells live frogs for food, along with turtles (which actually happens to be illegal in this state, don't ask how they get away with it) And I wanted to wade into the deep end of the culinary adventurists pool by attempting to prepare this fascinating dish.

I understand that the frog needs to be alive, up until you've messed around with it enough so that it wouldn't be capable of staying alive.

Anyone have a clue on the steps needed to prepare it? Do you knock the frog out? Freeze it to make it fall asleep? Just hold it down and skin it while it wriggles around?

Rinse or no rinse? Any serious medical dangers when eating raw frog (I'm sure that's probably the most stupid question asked on here)

Perhaps anyone with sashimi preparation experience could lend a helping hand. And no, this is not a joke, not a trolling, this is serious, I really want to know. I just hope it doesn't count as animal cruelty in the US.

[Magictofu]

I am not sure about frogs, but turtles are carriers of salmonella... so frog sashimi maybe, turtle sashimi, certainly not.

As for skinning the frogs, what I used to do was simply to knock them off with a stick (e.g. small rolling pin), cut the legs at waist and then the skin comes off relatively easily.

[Domestic Goddess]

Frog, *gulp*, sashimi?

[larrylee]

I understand that the frog needs to be alive, up until you've messed around with it enough so that it wouldn't be capable of staying alive.

Anyone have a clue on the steps needed to prepare it? Do you knock the frog out? Freeze it to make it fall asleep? Just hold it down and skin it while it wriggles around?

Perhaps anyone with sashimi preparation experience could lend a helping hand. And no, this is not a joke, not a trolling, this is serious, I really want to know. I just hope it doesn't count as animal cruelty in the US.

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I'll start off by saying that I don't know how you're supposed to prepare a frog for sashimi. I've also seen live eel pinned and skinned, lobster broken apart alive, eaten live octopus, etc. But "just hold it down and skin it while it wriggles around" sounds incredibly callous.

From a medical research perspective, the proper, humane way to kill a frog (at least as I recall) is to cut off its head and pith it, which is to insert a thin needle (or something similar) down the spinal cord to destroy it.

[Andrew Fenton]

I haven't the froggiest-- er, foggiest idea-- how to prepare frog sashimi. But for this question:

Anyone have a clue on the steps needed to prepare it? Do you knock the frog out? Freeze it to make it fall asleep? Just hold it down and skin it while it wriggles around?

you could look at this thread from about six months ago. It's not all goofing around, really.

[torakris]

Is frog sashimi eaten in Japan? Is it a speciality of a particular region? I would love to try it.

I have only ever found frog legs here, frozen at that, and only in 2 large international supermarkets. I have never seen fresh/live frogs for sale...

Please include pictures after you do figure it out!

[jtnippon1985]

Torakris, there is a certain type of restaurant in Japan called Getamono bars which basically means "exotic and wierd things" bar. One is called the Asadachi, or something like that which means....Morning Erection. No I am not kidding and it was featured on Travel Channel's Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern.

Actually, here is a link (youtube) to a video from the episode:

Edited March 11, 2007 by jtnippon1985 (log)

[torakris]

Torakris, there is a certain type of restaurant in Japan called Getamono bars which basically means "exotic and  wierd things" bar. One is called the Asadachi, or something like that which means....Morning Erection. No I am not kidding and it was featured on Travel Channel's Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern.

Actually, here is a link (youtube) to a video from the episode:

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Here is some info on the shop Asadachi in Nishi Shinjuku and sure enough their menu includes frog sashimi.

[torakris]

Thanks for the video link! The frog sashimi would be a bit more appetizing to me if it wasn't served with the frog staring at you!

EDITED to add it doesn't look or sound like a shop many women would go to...

Edited March 11, 2007 by torakris (log)

[jtnippon1985]

Shinjuku, it figures, hahahaha!

Btw torakris, since you're here, can you answer this one question for me?

I have heard that Fugu is often left with a miniscule amount of poison in the flesh so that the person eating it experiences a tingling sensation in their mouth and throat while eating it, but not enough to shut any vital systems down. Is this true?

[EDIT] Found this on Wikipedia:

If an ingested dose of the fugu's poison is lethal, as more and more muscles are paralyzed, symptoms may include dizziness, exhaustion, headache, nausea or difficulty breathing. For 50% to 80% of the victims, death follows within four to 24 hours. The victim remains fully conscious throughout most of the ordeal, but cannot speak or move due to paralysis, and soon also cannot breathe and subsequently asphyxiates. If the victim survives the first 24 hours, he or she usually recovers completely.

Wow, that's pretty hardcore

Wikipedia.org - Fugu

Edited March 11, 2007 by jtnippon1985 (log)

[torakris]

Shinjuku, it figures, hahahaha!

Btw torakris, since you're here, can you answer this one question for me?

I have heard that Fugu is often left with a miniscule amount of poison in the flesh so that the person eating it experiences a tingling sensation in their mouth and throat while eating it, but not enough to shut any vital systems down. Is this true?

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I have never heard this before and I can't imagine any reputable restaurants doing this, if it is done it is probably in private homes.

[Hiroyuki]

This webpage says that all the frogs for cooking purposes are natural, not farmed.

料理用のカエルは養殖ではなく、全て天然物、とのこと。

[ojisan]

This webpage says that all the frogs for cooking purposes are natural, not farmed.

料理用のカエルは養殖ではなく、全て天然物、とのこと。

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Mmmm. Organic, free-range frogs.

[jtnippon1985]

Well, whenever I decide to do this, *gulp* I'll post pictures. Hopefully I don't die.

[larrylee]

you could look at this thread from about six months ago.  It's not all goofing around, really.

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Besides the comment about pithing (which I mentioned earlier) and the Filipino method (which does nothing to address the pain the frog feels), that thread is not very helpful. I think your best bet is to ask the merchant to kill and prep the frogs for you.

[slo_ted]

We don't eat turtles. Frogs if farmed, maybe. Definitely not free range frogs, they have enough environmental baggage to deal with.

[jtnippon1985]

I'm assuming that fresh killed is best because the animal hasn't been dead long enough for virus' and bacteria do inhabit the animal's body, right?

I mean any live animal could be diseased, but there are less chances of problems going with live, and then killed and eaten very shortly (within an hour) afterwords right?

If that's the case I might go to the store, have them killed, and then rush back home, rinse them off with ice cold distilled water, and have my sauce already prepared.

I would like the heart though but I don't think the butchers are skilled enough to seek out just the heart and bag it on ice so that it still is beating..

I don't know, I don't know.

[Hiroyuki]

I think you can find some valuable information in English by searching with such keywords as frog and parasite.

[NickLam]

There is a frog farm near my home and they sell lots of other live fish and stuff too. They have an 'open kitchen' concept for customers to watch their chosen prey get dispatched in a flurry of blood and deft knifework (They fillet fish very very cleanly using huge cleavers).

Anyway, here's how they kill, gut and skin a frog.

Hold the frog down, belly facing the chopping board. Lop off the head with a cleaver. I would recommend the 'place cleaver edge on neck and hammer the blade down with your other hand' technique. You don't wanna take your fingers off.

Grab the body and make the headless froggie sit up just like you would Barbie on her playhouse chair. Lop off the webbed feet on the hind legs.

Take two needle nosed pliers. At the neck cavity, use one plier to grab hold of the bony/fleshy area. Use the other plier and grab hold of a flap of skin around the neck cavity. Its not unlike taking off a glove from someone else's hand.

Make a slit down the tummy of the frog. Grab the frog with your two thumbs in the tummy cavity. Turn the frog inside out with your other fingers and all the entrails will spill out. Don't blame me if you poison yourself...but ahaha maybe the liver might be of culinary interest? Don't ask me which is the liver!

Wash with a lot of water. I have no idea how you might fillet it for sashimi...don't think san-mai oroshi would apply here

[Magictofu]

I'm assuming that fresh killed is best because the animal hasn't been dead long enough for virus' and bacteria do inhabit the animal's body, right?

I mean any live animal could be diseased, but there are less chances of problems going with live, and then killed and eaten very shortly (within an hour) afterwords right?

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In the case of salmonela, you can eat the animal alive and still get infected. That does not mean that all animal are carrier of salmonela and even among carriers, most animals could be germ free (chicken is a good example here). I still don't know if frogs can be carriers of salmonela... but they are delicious pan fried in a little butter and garlic.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I have Chinese market nearby that sells live frogs for food, along with turtles (which actually happens to be illegal in this state, don't ask how they get away with it) And I wanted to wade into the deep end of the culinary adventurists pool by attempting to prepare this fascinating dish.

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Here in CA, the markets are allowed to have live frogs and turtles for sale, but they're supposed to kill them before the customer leaves the store with them.

[Evan]

Well, salmonella does not stop some of the Japanese to eat stuff raw as I've seen chicken sashimi served in many places. I really don't like eating anything raw from freshwater, even the freshwater/andronomous fish, such as salmon as the chance to get pathogenic parasites are so much greater in freshwater creatures although you can still get parasites from saltwater fish and squid but no one likes to talk about that.

The only thing that I'm hesitant about is the 'golden ball' sashimi, yikes.

[Blether]

I have heard that Fugu is often left with a miniscule amount of poison in the flesh so that the person eating it experiences a tingling sensation in their mouth and throat while eating it, but not enough to shut any vital systems down. Is this true?

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I've felt this slight tingling, but I find ".. left with a minuscule amount..." a strange way to put it. There can be some level of toxin even in the flesh, enough to cause this - but it's not like it's intentionally 'left' there by the chef. I think it just depends on the fish. The liver (and ovaries, says Wiki) contain the most poison and removing them is the key to safe eating.

Edited March 14, 2007 by Blether (log)

[budrichard]

"the proper, humane way to kill a frog (at least as I recall) is to cut off its head and pith it, "

Actually, one 'pith's' the frog BEFORE cutting off the head.

The needle is inserted into the brain and because of the frog's primative nervous system, the frog heart continues to beat and circulate blood while the frog is dissected alive to observe how the organs function. If you do not want to study the frog's internals while still performing thier function, than just kill the frog and have at it.

BTW, I never eat reptiles raw for the above mentioned reasons.-Dick

[donk79]

For the preservation of this thread and the pursuit of the fugu question...