Monday, November 8, 2010

F for "Fugu"

I kind of cheated because "fugu" is Japanese. Is this word used in English as it is? According to a translation dictionary, it's called balloon fish, puffer fish, swell fish, or some other names, so pick one that makes sense to you.

This weekend, we had my sister for a night. Dad was delighted and took us to the restaurant to eat balloon fish. This fish is now in season, and it's not something we can eat everyday. It has very dangerous poison, so the chef has to be licensed to deal with balloon fish. Since this is the food for special occasions, this was my only second time to eat this fish in my life, and the first time in a proper restaurant.

We had sashimi and hot pot, and they were really good. It was kind of tricky to eat balloon fish in the hot pot because it was chopped in small pieces with bones inside. And the meat was really white as bones. We had to be careful not to bite into the bones. But the meat was tender and moist, and the skin was gelatinous, which was the texture I like. It was a fun evening.

This has nothing to do with "fugu", but I'm now reading a book called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (since I finished reading Jane Eyre!!). A friend of mine recommended this book to me long time ago, and I finally got one the other day. So far, I have read two-thirds of the book and found it really interesting. This story is about a super-smart autistic boy, and the mysteries and incidents around him. This is written in a journal style so that readers can experience how this boy looks and feels the world. But I learned how hard it would be to live with autism, for people around the person and also for the person himself. If you had so many limitations when you try to live safely and comfortably, you would have to feel anxious and nervous all the time. The author wrote really well how the boy is confused in busy places or unfamiliar surroundings, and that makes me really worried about this main character. (Am I too absorbed into the book??) Anyway, I can't wait to finish reading this story!

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