April, 2006

Ever wondered how whale meat is served in Japan? Well, take a look at this whale recipe site and here you'll find recipes for Whale Skin Salad with Sesame Miso Dressing, Creamy Whale Stew with Sake Lees or Deep Fried Whale with Leek. And of course, there's whale sashimi, which is considered a true delicacy, and more expensive than tuna toro. Whale cartilege is often used in recipes as well, and highly regarded by some kaiseki chefs.

Whale on the menu should make most avowedly anti-whaling Australians gag. But not so for Japanese women's group "Women's Forum Sakana (Fish)", operators of the website. This group is involved in "linking consumers with the fishing industry" by running seminars and cooking courses all over Japan, and their main aim is to encourage the consumption of whale meat. The group has close links to Japan's Fisheries Agency, Japan Whaling Association and the Institute for Cetacean Research. No surprises there. The women's group has about 1000 members (Japan's population is 130 million), and with their accessible  housewifey image, manages to command a lot of pro-whaling publicity in Japan.

And all that attention reinforces the image that all Japanese are whale lovers. But that's not so. The fact is, most Japanese don't really care that much for whale meat, but there is rarely the kind of anti-whaling moral outrage seen in western countries like Australia. 

Yes, it's due to lack of political awareness. Barely 30 years ago, the Japanese were still eating whale meat in schools, and the sort of news footage of whaling vessels doing their bloody deeds rarely features on Japanese news programs, partly because the activities of the whaling ships are in Antarctic waters, close to Australia and far from Japan. (For more on whaling politics, see Whaling and Japan...why? )

Anyway, if you can swallow your moral outrage, here are some whale recipes that are advocated by the Women's Forum Sakana. 

Translation of recipe from Women's Forum Sakana website: Whale Stew with Miso and Sake Lees

Whale Bacon Slices 12
White Miso 50g
Sake Lees 30g
Milk 600cc
Salt a little
Baby Taro Potato 12

Peel taro and boil in salted water until tender.
Place the sake lees in a mortar and pestle and grind till smooth, add white miso and continue to mix in. Add milk little by little and season with a little salt.

Place miso mixture in a saucepan and warm on low heat. Add the cooked taro and simmer to make the stew.

In a soup bowl, arrange some of the taro and cover with bacon slices. Cover with hot stew and serve. 

by Masako Fukui, Kei's Kitchen

keiskitchen.com.au content by Masako Fukui is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.