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in reply to Re: On sushi:
in thread On sushi:

While I do agree that Bonito is mighty tasty, I have to urge people to be really careful about preparing it yourself.

The reason bonitos are prepared lightly charred is because they have parasites on their skin, which must be killed before hand. The parasites easily die under heat, so if you take care of it there's no problem.

Anyway, people prepare their own bonito sushi all the time, but you just have to be careful

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Re: Re: Re: On sushi:
by earthboundmisfit (Chaplain) on Jun 24, 2002 at 19:21 UTC
    Yes, that is called scombroid poisoning and it's not limited to bonito. Any scombroid species (tuna, swordfish, albacore, mackrel, jacks, mahi mahi, etc.) can give you this. The liklihood and severity increases the longer the fish is out of the water. This is why I prepare sashimi right on the boat. BTW, it's caused by bacteria that produce histamines; searing the meat will not have any effect, but I've always wondered if a dose of sudofed would.

      Ah, learned something new :)

      So, if it's universal to all those fishes, why is it that seemingly only bonitos are charred? Just curious...

        I'm really not sure (again, I've never seen bonito in a restaurant on the East Coast). It could be that Pacific bonito have some other parasitic critters that searing takes care of, but I'm not familiar with anything of the kind in the Atlantic species. Another possibility is the way Pacific bonito are harvested. Commercial boats take them as by-catch on the way to off shore fishing grounds. Even well iced, they probably pick up some nasties at the bottom of the hold.