Lucky Pierrot, a Japanese fast food chain, has put a whale burger on the menu at its ten restaurants, all based on Hokkaido, the country's northern island and one with strong ties to whaling.
"We fry minke whale meat and the burger really tastes like beef," [Lucky Pierrot] manager Miku Oh said.
"We have decided to add a whale burger to our menu due to strong demand from our customers and feel very thankful to the whales for allowing us to make the burgers," she told [Agence French-Presse].
Despite a 19-year-old international ban on whaling, the whale meat comes from whales killed under a special "research" clause. And this small chain is not the only one trying to rekindle a taste for whale meat. Some schools in Japan are, too:
Earlier this year, most schools in Wakayama, Japan's western whaling heartland, resumed whale lunches which had gone off the menu amid global anti-whaling campaigns.
Hoping children will take a liking to whale, the schools have served the meat in burgers and marinated it in sweet and sour sauce.
OK, you're not going to believe this, but you can eat whale meat in restaurants in Japan. I can't quite recall the flavor, so it must not have been too special. Either that, or it's been too long and I'm getting old.
Heh. I actually do believe it. My friend there mentioned trying it one time while visiting some seaport town. If I recall correctly, he said it was pretty bland tasting and, shocker, very fatty and chewy.
Although it could be said for cows as well, I think it is disturbing to take these beautiful, gentle giants out of the sea. The world is suffering from overfishing, that's why we see shark attacks on the news every night.
Lucky Pierrot is for whatever reason considered far and away the cult burger chain in all of Japan, despite only having about a dozen locations, all around the medium-size city of Hakodate. Every single Japanese local food guide I've read features it. . .
I guess the house style is stretching the envelope - besides whale, they have "burgers" featuring scallop, squid, "kakuni" (red-braised pork) and something called "Chinese chicken" (seems like what would be called "Korean chicken" here in Hawaii - boneless fried chicken dipped hot/sweet marinade). They take requests from their customers, and most outrageous ones go on the menu.
But by far their most famous burger is the "futoccho", which is about a foot high and features (as far as I can tell by looking at it) a pork sausage patty, topped with cheese, demiglace, and "special sauce", topped with a crab croquette, topped with a regulation hamburger, topped with chopped onions and more demiglace sauce, topped with a fried egg, then finally about half an iceburg lettuce. I know, you shall say that this is not properly a burger . . .
Here are some pictures, so maybe you can pick it out better than me. Here's one and another
small picture, as well as a hugepicture.
Surprisingly, no pictures at the official site, which is nonetheless bizarre in its own way.
"We have decided to add a whale burger to our menu due to strong demand from our customers and feel very thankful to the whales for allowing us to make the burgers," she told [Agence French-Presse].
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! the whales allowed them to make burgers out of them. wow...that's retarded.
hey look, I'm a whale, ok..sure eat me please, make me into a burger. the hell is this crap!
It's just a fluke, that's all. Whale "meets" with my approval! It may seem fishy, but I wouldn't beef about a whaleburger. See whale? Se(a) - food! Now don't blubber, get to the meat of the matter. You have to loin there's a lot at steak here. Stop spouting off and being such a blowhard!
So just because it's different in another country you guys say it is crap or whatever. It was the western countries that killed whales for just their blubber. Japanese whalers used everything from the blubber to the meat and even the bones. What about frois gras? Force feed geese by putting tubes in their throat to fatten their livers - accuse those countries and they reply it's part of their culture. Japan says its their tradition and they get crapped on. Do you homework - whales have no natural predators - there isn't much fish in the sea - whales eat several tonnes of fish a day, guess what's going to happen - no fish for anyone. Japan shouldn't go all out on whaling but they should be allowed to do some whaling as tradition and to control the population. I guess in the western world, if it's big or furry, it's cute and shouldn't be touched.. but you don't mind people playing with insects and killing/mutilating them for fun on a show like Fear Factor.
I'd say it's because whales don't have a natural predator that whaling for a modern world's demands is 'overfishing'. Despite the fact that whale oil isn't used for fuel anymore, whales aren't are populous as they once were, they're still recovering from the last few centuries, I think.
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9 Comments:
I wonder how the dodo and the tasmanian tiger tasted inbetween buns.
Hamburger Switch at 7:23PM on 06/23/05
Hi Adam,
OK, you're not going to believe this, but you can eat whale meat in restaurants in Japan. I can't quite recall the flavor, so it must not have been too special. Either that, or it's been too long and I'm getting old.
Hamburger Reid at 7:44AM on 06/24/05
Heh. I actually do believe it. My friend there mentioned trying it one time while visiting some seaport town. If I recall correctly, he said it was pretty bland tasting and, shocker, very fatty and chewy.
Adam Kuban at 8:44AM on 06/24/05
Although it could be said for cows as well, I think it is disturbing to take these beautiful, gentle giants out of the sea. The world is suffering from overfishing, that's why we see shark attacks on the news every night.
Hamburger Hamburger Hadley at 7:22PM on 07/01/05
Lucky Pierrot is for whatever reason considered far and away the cult burger chain in all of Japan, despite only having about a dozen locations, all around the medium-size city of Hakodate. Every single Japanese local food guide I've read features it. . .
I guess the house style is stretching the envelope - besides whale, they have "burgers" featuring scallop, squid, "kakuni" (red-braised pork) and something called "Chinese chicken" (seems like what would be called "Korean chicken" here in Hawaii - boneless fried chicken dipped hot/sweet marinade). They take requests from their customers, and most outrageous ones go on the menu.
But by far their most famous burger is the "futoccho", which is about a foot high and features (as far as I can tell by looking at it) a pork sausage patty, topped with cheese, demiglace, and "special sauce", topped with a crab croquette, topped with a regulation hamburger, topped with chopped onions and more demiglace sauce, topped with a fried egg, then finally about half an iceburg lettuce. I know, you shall say that this is not properly a burger . . .
Here are some pictures, so maybe you can pick it out better than me. Here's one and another
small picture, as well as a huge picture.
Surprisingly, no pictures at the official site, which is nonetheless bizarre in its own way.
Hamburger Sun-Ki at 5:46AM on 10/12/05
"We have decided to add a whale burger to our menu due to strong demand from our customers and feel very thankful to the whales for allowing us to make the burgers," she told [Agence French-Presse].
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! the whales allowed them to make burgers out of them. wow...that's retarded.
hey look, I'm a whale, ok..sure eat me please, make me into a burger. the hell is this crap!
Hamburger Larry T at 1:04PM on 02/07/06
It's just a fluke, that's all. Whale "meets" with my approval! It may seem fishy, but I wouldn't beef about a whaleburger. See whale? Se(a) - food! Now don't blubber, get to the meat of the matter. You have to loin there's a lot at steak here. Stop spouting off and being such a blowhard!
Hamburger Robert Speirs at 9:26PM on 06/19/06
So just because it's different in another country you guys say it is crap or whatever. It was the western countries that killed whales for just their blubber. Japanese whalers used everything from the blubber to the meat and even the bones. What about frois gras? Force feed geese by putting tubes in their throat to fatten their livers - accuse those countries and they reply it's part of their culture. Japan says its their tradition and they get crapped on. Do you homework - whales have no natural predators - there isn't much fish in the sea - whales eat several tonnes of fish a day, guess what's going to happen - no fish for anyone. Japan shouldn't go all out on whaling but they should be allowed to do some whaling as tradition and to control the population. I guess in the western world, if it's big or furry, it's cute and shouldn't be touched.. but you don't mind people playing with insects and killing/mutilating them for fun on a show like Fear Factor.
Hamburger mark at 12:55PM on 09/16/06
I'd say it's because whales don't have a natural predator that whaling for a modern world's demands is 'overfishing'. Despite the fact that whale oil isn't used for fuel anymore, whales aren't are populous as they once were, they're still recovering from the last few centuries, I think.
comicsan at 8:55AM on 11/17/08