Word: fugu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...antidote is known, and the fatality rate of fugu poisoning has remained nearly...
...peak of fugu gastronomy is sashimi made from the rare tiger fugu: paper-thin slices of raw fish flesh arranged artistically on platters in flower or bird patterns. Japanese, who pay $8 for two ounces of tiger fugu sashimi, eat it with almost religious ceremony and little or no risk. The sashimi is cut from the back flesh of the fugu, which is nonpoisonous* unless it has been carelessly contaminated with poison from other parts...
Perilous Aphrodisiac. The peril and excitement come from other fugu dishes. Most risky is a milky-white preparation of fugu testes that is mixed with hot sake and drunk by eager virility seekers. The testes are nontoxic, but the ovaries and liver are so deadly that small bits of them can kill a man, and it takes an experienced chef to distinguish a deadly liver from an aphrodisiac testis...
...Fugu chefs pass strict examinations before they are licensed to practice their risky art, but no Japanese politician would dare prohibit fugu, or even its dangerous entrails. Many of them, including Premier Eisaku Sato, are passionate fugu lovers...
Japanese chemists are also hard at work on a more practical chore: finding an antidote for tetrodotoxin poisoning. But success may not be applauded by risk-loving gourmets. When a bottle of antitoxin is standing in every restaurant, the dangerous fugu will have become just another fish; fugu roulette will have lost its excitement, and something unique will have vanished from Japanese culture...