Is it Safe to Eat Puffer Fish in China?

During my first trip to Shanghai and Zhejiang province over two decades ago, one thing that struck me was the popularity of puffer fish. I saw them swimming in restaurant fish tanks and ate a couple of times when it was served during meals.

It was delicious. 

Puffer fish was more ubiquitous in Shanghai and Zhejiang than in Tokyo, from my own observation. And, it was not considered a top level premium fish.

I wasn't a food blogger then, and had other things on my mind - I was curious but didn't pursue the matter. I just thought perhaps, these were non-poisonous sub-species of puffer fish (wrong, there is no such thing as non-poisonous sub-species in Asia, and arguably the world).

I always wondered what the facts really are. It bugged for a long time like a slow stew 😂

So, during my recent trip to Jiangsu province, I decided to get to the bottom of it. 

Tonight's Puffer Fish from Suqian Dream Garden Restaurant

Our host initially told me that puffer fish wasn't on the menu 😬 But, we were served puffer fish during one of our meals in Suqian city (was it because I kept pestering our host about it? 🤭). 

Anyway, when we were served the puffer fish, no one else wanted to give it a try except me 😂

I ate a lot of puffer fish that day 😁

The fish was steamed or boiled and served drenched in an aromatic savoury viscous brown sauce that gave the fish skin a slight gleam in the restaurant's bright lights. 

This is a typical preparation in China.

(I haven't had puffer fish sashimi style in China though it is the norm in Japan and around the world, which most people are familiar with.)

Puffer fish's white flesh was soft tender, moist with a subtle squeaky bite. Slightly firmer, subtly chewy compared to typical river fish. I'll said it felt a bit like flounder.

The flesh tasted naturally subtle sweet without any of the typical earthiness of river fish. Puffer fish of Zhejiang and Jiangsu in China are from the Yangtze River.

The liver, tenderly coarse, grainy, moist with subtle savoury taste. Neither spongy nor springy, nor briny like pork liver. None of the creaminess, oiliness, or umami taste of foie gras.

Supposedly one of the most toxic parts of puffer fish. 

I am still here 🤭

To me, the most challenging part of eating puffer fish is the skin. It was relatively thick, soft, no scales but covered with tiny spines.

Image courtesy of Paul Morgan

An angry puffer fish. 

You cannot chew on the skin as the spines will make it impossible to eat. The spines felt like gritty sand when I chewed on the skin.

The thick skin felt soft and smooth without chewing, and I let it slide down my throat. Without chewing, I couldn't taste its flavour. 

This puffer fish along with a dozen other dishes were for a party of ten people. This dish was almost completely eaten by me alone 😂

Why do Chinese, Japanese and Koreans eat puffer fish? The most cited theory is simply because people were hungry, catch was poor and so puffer fish weren't spared the table even though they were poisonous. 

No one really knows, but when I was wading on the beaches of Hainan island last year, puffer fish were most prone to get into our nets. We had the privilege to throw them back into the water which some of our hungry ancestors didn't.

They quickly found out that puffer fish can be deadly but is so delicious. A combination of eat to live and live to eat impulses led some to risk their lives to find a way to eat puffer fish safely 舍命吃河豚.

Meta AI image

The Chinese love puffer fish as much as the Japanese and look forward with great anticipation to the puffer fish spawning season upriver in the Yangtze every year (around the Qing Ming, tomb sweeping period).

This poem by 苏轼 Su Shi (lived 1037 - 1101) of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).

萎蒿满地芦芽短

正是河豚欲上时

Land is covered with wormwood and short reed buds

Is when puffer fish desire rises 

[meaning it's puffer fish mating season and our craving for its flesh]

The traditional way is to cut and discard the poisonous parts of the fish. Life and death depends on the skill of the puffer fish (known as fugu in Japan) chef. In China today, they solve the poison problem by farming technique. 

Eating puffer fish was banned in China in 1990 due to frequent poisonings. The ban was lifted in 2016, but only for farmed puffer fish from approved farms. Wild puffer fish and fish from non-approved farms are still banned - please note. 

Is farmed puffer fish safe? 

Puffer fish do not have their own poison. They accumulate the poison, toxins from microorganisms in the food they eat (e.g. clams) and store it in their muscle, skin, liver, kidney, ovaries, eyes, blood, etc. The accumulated toxin in the puffer fish attack the nerves of the predator. The lungs and heart stop working leading to death quickly. 

Puffer fish toxin known as tetrodotoxin is more than 1000 times more deadly than cyanide. And, there is no antidote.

At approved puffer fish farms, all sources of toxins are kept away, so the farmed puffer fish could not accumulate any toxins, hence making it safe for consumption. The puffer fish are processed, i.e. gutted and skinned at the farm's processing plant by experts. But, even with farmed puffer fish, a certified puffer fish chef is still required to prepare and serve the dish at the restaurant.

My advice is not to try any puffer fish 🚫

You already know how it tastes. I risked my life for you, so you don't have to 😬

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Written by Tony Boey on 29 Jun 2024

Refernces:

Now they use puffer fish to make soup baos, dumpling, fried nuggets, ramen and maybe fish balls, fish cakes soon

Common fry and stew style of preparing puffer fish in Jiangsu

The only masala puffer fish video I have come across

Preparing a puffer fish

Farming puffer fish in China