Whale Curry

[mad pierrot]

Yes folks, it’s Whale meat curry. Was tasty, too. I had it at a small restaurant in Kushimoto, the most Southern point of Honshu. (Not far from Taiji, the infamous place of the whale/dolphin slaughter.) A beautiful area, if anyone ever has the chance to get there, I highly recommend going. Stayed at a place called the Urashima hotel in Kii-Katsura. It’s a great place, on top of a mountain on an island. (You take a ferry to the hotel.) Not only are the views great, but there are 6 onsen located on the island as well. One of them is located in a seaside cave you can watch the sun rise from. If that isn’t cool enough, there are tunnels inside the mountain filled with video games. What more could a man want?

For history/nature buffs, it’s also easy to access to the Kumano Kodo trail and Nachi falls from the hotel, too. Check out the hotel website HERE. .

[mad pierrot]

More pics of the place

[misa.j]

Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing, mad_pierrot.
The tunnel sounds so cool. It seems like a great idea to have a video arcade in the tunnel for the sound effect.

Whale curry, huh. It sounds interesting, but I like the whales too much.

"Urashima" is the name of a boy who helped a poor turtle that was being bullied by children on the beach; it's a famous Japanese fairy tale.

[Brooker]

Nice pics. I wanted to go to that area, but it was pretty far from where I was. Looks like a nice place. And the whale curry actually looks kind of good.

[earthangel]

So Mad Pierrot, still eating cetaceans? I hope one day you will research cetaceans and see how evolved, intelligent and amazing they are instead of just thinking about what tastes good.

Human gluttony is destroying everything in the sea. At the rate Japan is going it looks like they are determined to wipe out all the whales and dolphins they can - just so your school children can have whale meat for lunch.

I wonder if you even care about the marine ecosystem? Do you not know that whales' excrement fertilizes plankton so essential to feed the entire food chain and also provide oxygen for all fish to breathe. There is a crisis in the oceans right now - plankton is in decline 40-70% all around the world. Also oxygen is becoming a problem with over 160 dead zones in the sea where nothing lives - no oxygen, no worms, no fish - nothing, just microbes. All this because of whaling and overfishing.

We have taken out 90% of all the fish and mammals in the sea (whales, dolphins, sharks, seals, walruses, sea lions etc). Because there is a delicate relationship between marine mammals and marine plants, when you take out predatory fish you lose marine plants/plankton correspondingly.

If the oceans die (and we are heading in that direction, thanks to Japan, Norway, Canada etc) we will be in deep trouble. Since 70-80% of the atmospheric oxygen comes from the ocean, we will not have enough oxygen to breathe on land. Furthermore, the ocean will begin to offgas carbon dioxide from shells at the sea bottom. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is the highest it has ever been right now because of the ocean offgassing and it is increasing.

So you see, mad Pierrot, with every mouthful of whale curry each one of us is killing not just whales but the future of all life on earth, one bite at a time. I hope you remember this next time you are in Kushimoto.

[Brooker]

Oh, here we go. Relax! I'm not a big proponent of whaling, but people like you who get all worked up are just annoying. And I don't think Mad P will be bringing down the world ecosystem by trying whale once.

[mad pierrot]

In effect, you have 2 main points.

A) You don't know how smart whales and like humans whales are. You shouldn't eat them because of this.
B) You must not know anything about ecology. Killing whales will destroy the ocean's ecosystems.

A) is strictly a moral issue.

I hope one day you will research cetaceans and see how evolved, intelligent and amazing they are instead of just thinking about what tastes good.

Be careful, this is a loaded statement. Personally, I find it arrogant that we should only care about species similar to us. If you are so extraordinarily concerned about the ocean's biodiversity, why haven't you said anything about the orange roughy? The current population isn't capable of withstanding much of the high demand placed on it by global fisheries. Should mink whales, although unthreatened, be placed ahead of the orange roughy just because it reflects certain characteristics you deem "evolved?" Whether you realize it or not, what you said implies that in some way, humans are superior to other animals. On the contrary, I do not believe humanity to be above anything else in nature. Therefore I do not discriminate based on anthropomorphic features.

If you'd like to continue debating this, I'd be more than happy to continue.


As for B), you should really read my post HERE.
I will tackle this issue more in your own post, HERE.

[Shibuyaexpat]

I've never had whale meat, but I'm very interested in what it tastes like. If possible can you please describe?

[mad pierrot]

It mostly tastes like..... soft beef, I guess. It's really hard to say because it has such a unique taste. Strange texture. I really like it.

[Shibuyaexpat]

Thanks, mad pierrot!

[A5573A]

Originally Posted by mad pierrot

It mostly tastes like..... soft beef, I guess. It's really hard to say because it has such a unique taste. Strange texture. I really like it.

Can I eat that in Osaka or Tokyo?

[mad pierrot]

Might be more expensive, though. Whale isn't very popular in Japan anymore, but it's served all over the place.