Fugu Puffer FISH And Crazy People That Would Eat It That I Have Known.

I drank coffee at the counter of Dick Church's Restaurant in Costa Mesa California every morning before work all through the 90's.

One of the men who was always drinking coffee at the counter with us was a  wonderful man named Steve, a shoe salesman who was married to a beautiful Japanese woman.

One of his bucket list things to do was to just once eat a puffer fish, "fugu."

He had told me that on his 40th wedding anniversary he was going to take his Japanese bride to Japan and while there eat fugu.

After his 40th wedding anniversary we never saw Steve again...

According to his wife he had eated fugu while in Japan and went back to his hotel room complaining of gastrointestinal pain...curled up in a fetal position he suffered and never got up out of that bed...

To eat fugu is to put your life on the line.

 These fish are considered the second most poisonous vertebrates in the world.

They contain a toxin 1,200 more deadly than cyanide.

It's in their skin, their ovaries, their gonads, and their liver.

 One fish can kill thirty people.

That's why Japanese chefs must train for years before serving the notoriously poison puffer fish to the public.

 For more than 45 years, chef Sasaki has served this potentially lethal delicacy to patrons in his Tokyo restaurant.

Feeling hungry?

 About five people a year make puffer fish their last meal, and many more get violently sick from it.

It's not a pleasant way to go.