Whale Meat

[Peter Green]

Whale is available at Uemasa in Bangkok, in the Japanese enclave off of soi Thonglor. It's quite interesting. The part that I had tasted very much like good pork belly.

As a note, this same restaurant also serves horse sashimi, which was wonderfully marbled, and melted like butter in my mouth.

I'd hoped to get more this last trip, but we got there too late in the night, and they had already closed by midnight, so bear that in mind when planning.

[prasantrin]

Do you mean you have noticed them for the first time since you came to Japan?  They have been around for decades!

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I noticed them for the first time *at my local grocery store*. I've seen them elsewhere, especially as omiyage (I found it in abundance in Hirado last month), but not so much locally. They were in a nice blue tin--very different from usual Japanese packaging in that it was very simple. It didn't even have a picture of a whale on it!

[Chufi]

a whale question..

I was served this dish of uni and whale in a Japansese restaurant here in the Netherlands last night.

The black and white strips look nothing like the pictures of whale meat I´ve seen on this thread (and they sure did not taste like beef )

so, what part of the whale did I eat?

[Hiroyuki]

a whale question..

I was served this dish of uni and whale in a Japansese restaurant here in the Netherlands last night.

The black and white strips look nothing like the pictures of whale meat I´ve seen on this thread (and they sure did not taste like beef  )

so, what part of the whale did I eat?

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Hi, Chufi, it's skin (and fat). Whale skin is now such an expensive delicacy (600 yen or higher per 100 g). It is used in whale soup (kujira jiru in Japanese), a specialty of Niigata prefecture.

40 years ago, when I was small, whale meat was the cheapest of all meats...

[Nathan]

I've had whale meat (blubber really) in Norway. don't know what species it was (some are endangered, some are not). it was very fatty. don't remember anything else.

Horse meat can be very good. heck, it's a regional specialty in Verona.

[JasonWV]

I wonder if it goes better with rice or mash potatoes. Snickers Wish we could get horse and whale in the us alway up to trying new foods.

[Morten]

Back when i was a youngster and lived on Greenland for some years i ate whale frequently.

The fat with the skin on, sliced in a comfortable bite size with tabasco is a delicacy and you wont encounter people more happy when gathered for a bit of that.

Some has mentioned in this thread that it tasted like fish liver and some species really taste like that. Some dont. Wich species do or dont i cant rember (over 20 years ago).

But i must say that i was glad for it. Being a picky teenager i usually got it with curry and rice. (how you can be a picky teenager and love whale meat, but loath onions in food is beyond me today, but hey! )

Tastewise my parents several times subsituted whale (the non fishy tasting type) for beef when we got guests. A few times even without the guests knowledge - wich was fun, until some guests once told that someone else has tried something simular and they never spook to them again. Wich made my parents go..whoops and then never told them what they had been eating.

But as we said back then - the best thing about whalebeef you decide how big its gonna be :)

[Popodoe]

Just came back from a month long trip in Japan. Had many wonderful food experiences including this whale sashimi in an old fashioned izukaya. I felt just a tinge of guilt until I tasted it.

[Hiroyuki]

Just came back from a month long trip in Japan.  Had many wonderful food experiences including this whale sashimi in an old fashioned izukaya.  I felt just a tinge of guilt until I tasted it. 

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Great photo! I've never had raw whale meat, though. Your photo makes me want to have deep-fried whale meat (tatsuta-age) again, which was often served at school lunch almost 40 years ago.

Images of tatsuta-age can be found here.

[rlivings]

There's a sushi place in Kyushu that has sushi cut from different parts of the whale. They actually have a diagram showing where the cut came from.

[rykomatsu]

There's a sushi place in Kyushu that has sushi cut from different parts of the whale.  They actually have a diagram showing where the cut came from.

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There's a place in Asakusa that serves whale-nabe. Their primary dish is dojyou (Loach) nabe. It wasn't Komagata Dozeu though...

The consistency is almost like the beef from Yoshinoya's beef bowl over here in the US, but a more lighter/delicate flavor.

[torakris]

Let's please remember that whaling is a topic some people will never agree on and there are other places on the web to discuss it. This thread is to discuss whale meat and more specifically the different ways it is served in Japan. So please let's stay on topic.

[Kuma]

[singing to tune of Gracie Fields] "Whale Meat again.... don't know where.... don't know when..."

I came across these photos just today, so I thought I'd post them here. Still not sure if I'd try it or not, but I've got just over 20 months to decide. I DO have an obsession with bacon, hence the grin.

I thought it was a bit pricey, and I'd love if someone could read the label and tell me what part of the whale it was (I'm expecting blubber...)

[Hiroyuki]

The label doesn't say which part of a whale it is. I found this site:

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hakudai/575373/674962/

which says that high-quality whale bacon uses the portion called unesu, beside kawasu (skin?). You need to scroll down a little to see a sketch of a whale.