Whale Burgers

Here's some interesting news on whale meat from America Today:

Whale burger goes on sale in Japan

TOKYO

A fast food chain in northern Japan began offering a whale burger on Thursday, even as anti-whaling nations urged Japan to cut back on its catch at an international conference on whaling.

Restaurant chain Lucky Pierrot is serving a deep fried minke whale meat burger with lettuce and mayonnaise for $3.50 at its 10 restaurants in Hakodate on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, once a whaling hub in the nation.

Japan is facing increasing international criticism for its research whaling program in which the whales are killed in order to study them and their meat is then sold. Critics say it is commercial hunting in disguise.

Miku Oh, an official for Lucky Pierrot, said the chain is only utilizing stock meat obtained from the scientific research and that it wants to preserve the culture of eating whale meat.

"People in other countries may think (eating whale) is strange, but it is our culture," she said.

Oh said that the whale for the burger is cooked in such a way that "it tastes like beef and tuna, and since it is deep fried it has no odor."

At an annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission, currently being held in Ulsan, South Korea, anti-whaling countries passed a resolution Wednesday urging Japan to drop plans to more than double the number of whales it hunts each year for research.

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Comments

[Anders]

I had the opportunity to try some whale while in Norway so I asked my norwegian friend Espen what it was like. He paused, scratched his head and finally said, "Well, its kind of like seal."

[MC]

There's a whale restaurant in Shibuya that I've meaning to go to, So Anders when you visit we'll have to check it out. We'll have to sample seal on another excursion in order to compare.

[Ray Lee]

Never had whale, but it sounds good...especially deep fried in a burger. Pat, when I am visiting can we go out and eat nothing but seafood? I don't know much about anti-whaling activists, but I do remember bits of the Pacific Northwest news when that Native American tribe took to the hunt. I guess I missed my opportunity to try a whale burger back then.