Shirako: The rising Japanese culinary trend of eating fish sperm
Never, ever forget that the only thing that makes something normal is the culture you grow up in. Anything that you find mundane and comforting is bizarre when looked at through some specific way, and nothing proves that quite like food, whether that’s fish, meat, veggies or fruit.
After all, there are few things that alienate people from other cultures more than describing their so-called “weird” culinary habits. As if they didn’t sit down this afternoon to a hearty lunch of Chicken menstruation and congealed, fermented bovine mammary secretions, shoved into the endosperm of grass seeds mixed with hydrogen monoxide, which then had the sugars consumed by eukaryotic cells and was superheated by an open flame. A combination of sins against nature that we would call today the “egg and cheese sandwich”.
However, we can be as open-minded as we like, but there will always be things that give us the ick. In some places, it’s customary to eat dog meat, and many people would sooner eat their younger siblings than a mutt. In others a single whiff of the spices used to make their dishes would cause some people to spontaneously combust. Hell, I live in England, which is a byword for the kind of cuisine that makes people sad to have taste buds. Then you get shirako.
Let’s be clear here, Japanese cuisine absolutely rocks with very few exceptions. Sure, there are some options that to my Western palette might be a little strange, but that’s the case with all national cuisines. However, much like how there are many Scottish people who couldn’t choke down a haggis if their life depended on it, I could imagine many Japanese people having similar trouble keeping shirako down.
It might taste nice, but how do you get the idea that you’re eating fish jizz out of your head?!
Eating fish semen? What the fuck?!
Yep, time to put on my baka gaijin hat and ask in halting, Duolingo quality Japanese whether there’s a McDonald’s nearby, because sweet baby Jesus and the little donkey too, there’s no way that shit’s going near my mouth. Especially when you find out what shirako literally translates to, and I hope you’re not reading this over lunch, because I’ve just had mine and finding out it translates to “white children” nearly made me lose it.
However, it’s all true.
Shirako is made from the sperm sacs of fish like cod, anglerfish, salmon, squid and even pufferfish. It can be… enjoyed (for lack of a better word) in a variety of different ways. It can be rolled into sushi, fried in tempura batter or just consumed raw for the real sickos in the crowd. It does make sense, I guess. As we see from sushi, it’s standard practice in Japanese culinary culture to use every part of a fish when consuming it. It doesn’t get more total than eating its semen, I guess.
Not to mention the fact that the dish is celebrated for its taste. Which apparently has “the sweetness of with sea air”. A lovely, poetic comparison, but more down-to-earth comparisons have been made as well, comparing the dish to custard in its surprising sweetness. All joking aside, this isn’t a referendum on the supposed “weirdness” other other food cultures, but really, one’s own sense of maturity. After all, are you really going to turn down something clearly delicious because it’s something you don’t tend to eat?
I mean, I am, but don’t let me stop you.