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It took a couple of glasses of Sake before I could tackle that one

ByJohn Kuller

When dining in Japan, one was not always sure what was really on the plate. Or worse yet, one knew what was on the plate but to save face you had to choke it down anyhow.

The latter situation was brought forcefully to my attention on two consecutive evenings in Tokyo.

Seems I was the guest of some big shot Japanese executives at a fancy seafood restaurant in Tokyo. Since in Japan it was good form to let the host order, we did so, and everyone ended up with the specialty of the house a giant Red Snapper HEAD, alone on a plate, and complete with eyes.

It took a couple of water glasses of Sake before I could tackle that one, and two more before I could crunch down the eyes, but I finally got through the ordeal.

Then the very next evening the scene was repeated with some executives of a different company, at the very same restaurant.

My good luck, of course, was that out of about 10,000 restaurants in Tokyo, they had to pick that one. I couldnt admit Id been there the previous evening with the competition, and if any of the staff recognized me, they didnt let on.

So in an attempt to salvage the situation, I grabbed a menu, which was printed in Japanese, and announced that it said, Sorry but we have NO Red Snapper heads tonight.

One of the Japanese gentlemen, getting into the spirit but completely missing the point, said I had misread, and that it really said, Sorry but we have ONLY Red Snapper heads tonight.

Anyway. I end up eating another Red Snapper head, washed down with even more copious quantities of Sake, and to this day I cant stand the sight of Red Snapper in any size shape or form, heads or not.

But those experiences were dwarfed by the time in a Nagoya restaurant when a lobster walked off wife Pats plate, and another occasion when some of the guys, feeling no pain, were dunking live shrimp into red wine to get the creatures drunk, then biting their heads off and eating them raw.