kujira wa oishii

So, this may be slightly disgusting for some of you. For others, this may be an interesting read, but for a sort of interesting experience, Cameron invited us out to Ren in Yokosuka, about an hour south of Yokohama by train. We met four girls and another guy (Natsuko, Yuuka, Tomoko, Yumi and Kenta) at Yokohama Eki on the way to Yokosuka. At the restaurant (which is off the beaten track and rather small), we were seated at an elevated table with room under the table for our feet. We were a relatively large crowd, but I suppose that we booked the restaurant more or less.

The reason Cameron invited us out was twofold: it was part of his "research" for his paper for Japan in the World, and it was 500¥ per plate of kujira goodness. Kujira, if you haven't googled it yet, is whale. And that, my friends, is what we feasted on.

Kujira-Katsu is deep-fried with a light crumb crust, served with a Japanese barbeque-esque sauce. It had the consistency of red meat, but with a slightly fishier grain.

Kujira-Karaage is also deep-fried with a light batter, served with lime slices. It's saltier than the previous dish but equally delicious. It has less of a red-meat taste.

Kujira-sashimi hardly needs an explanation to sushi lovers, but for those uninitiated, it's raw meat. Raw whale. It had a much better texture than kobe-beef sashimi, but had a bit more of a bloody taste. It was nice and smooth, and the taste of shoyu contrasted with its rawness.

Kujira heart was mostly a chewier version of the sashimi, but there was also some kujira bacon which I didn't order. Peter traded me a slice for a slice of heart, and it tastes like a thicker fat chunk wrapped around pate. It was so good and fatty (clearly), but I had to gulp down a whole glass of water afterward.

We finished up with a kujira-steak, which had a delectable layer of cooked meat, barely seasoned but still quite flavorful. It rounded out the series of plates quite well.

Judge all you'd like, but it was sort of a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it was good times for my stomach :)