watashi to tokyo: Odd and Rare food in Japan

Ina What is food? I remember a long long time ago, I had a discussion withan American friend, about whether sea urchin is a food or not. He said it was unbelievable to eat sea urchin. Hmm but it is good for Sushi. The definition of food is what? It make you live or die?. Fugu has strong poison, but it is very expensive food which only a licensed cook can prepare in Japan. Okay so FOOD is nutritious or not? If so, a supplement is food? Iron or gold has nutrition, so they are food? "What is food"? This is such simple and difficult question. For foreign people, jellied arrowroot or sweetened kelp are exotic enough, of course for Japanese they are just regular food though. So this time, I will introduce the food which is called "Chinmi"( rare and odd ) in Japan by ourselves. But at least they are "things" which is sold as FOOD, or you can eat in restaurant in Japan.

Zaza Class A
Shinshu area has some famous food as Chinmi. There are insects, yes I know for western culture, eating insects will be just weird. But I could find good an article here, A Concise Summary of the General Nutritional Value of Insects . No only Japan, there are a certain area where people eat insects.

Baby Bee Tsukudani As a souvenir of Shinshu area, This is familiar with people. This food is rich in nutrition, we eat by Tukudani way. Me? I can not eat this. Ah here is a very kind site to have recipe. I hope you like it.

Grasshoppers Shinshu area produces a famous brand rice" Koshi hikari",so there are big rice field there. In autumn season, a lot of Inago appear in the rice fields. Since long ago, Inago have been a precious protein source for farmers in this area. Me? I can eat this, I don't know why, it is just okay for me. It tastes like spotted shrimp.

Zazamushi This is a larva of stonefly living in the Tenryu river. Zazamushi hunting is a sort of feature of winter in Tenryu river. This was a protein source for people in Shinshu area too.

Nama_1 Class B
Kusaya Have you ever eaten Durian? I have never eaten it before, but I heard it smells so bad. In Japan the worst smelling food is not Natto. It is this, Kusaya. It's a dried fish after soaking in special salt water, preserved for years. When you grill it, it makes a super bad smell. I have never eaten this before.

Sea cucumber We eat this with vinegar like this. Not only Japan, Korea, China,other some Asian country eat this. Me? I don't eat this. Like I wrote before, I really really hate this shape of stuff.

Nankotsu_1 Class C
Raw meat of Horse. This is expensive food. We eat this by sasimi and suchi sometimes. Low calories, and high protein. Very delicious.

Chicken cartilage I LOVE this. We eat this by Yakitori. very popular regular food in Izayaka. I wonder really only Asian eat such delicious food. ?? :-)

Natoo Hmm I was thinking I can list this my favourite food Natto here, But as far as I know many foreign people can not eat this. So I would list up Natto here in Lank C. 　This is my recipe for Natto.

I though I would add frog. But I could easily find a lot of fried frog recipes. So I think frog is regular food in the world. Do you eat it? I hardly eat it, but I heard it is delicious.