Sushi and sashemi style eateries flourish in eastern and western culture. Most dishes consist of raw seafood either as is fresh from the carcass or treated with "sauces" that kill parasites. I just can't eat it.
I have always been paranoid about parasites. I had a dog with tapeworms once but luckily you can buy pills to get rid of the tapeworm at any pet store. I have watched the shows on the Discovery Channel about human parasite infestations and read articles about human parasite infestation in other countries. All of them gross me out.
I don't even think I could deal with lice, be they head or pubic, scabies, or anything that gets in the gut and stays there. Hell, I get paranoid and itchy just filling an rx for lice or scabies. I couldn't imagine the freak out from finding tapeworm segments in my feces. I have the chills...
For the rest of my life I will always eat fully cooked meats and well cleaned vegetables. I don't want to end up as a case study on the Discovery Channel...
8 comments:
You rotter, I am going to Japan later in the month. Now I am very scared....maybe I should take two weeks of sandwiches to eat instead?
Yeah I've seen that show too, "Eaten Alive" ha ha! Fascinating stuff. Little wormies everywhere.
haha Finally I found someone like me!
Sushi, Japanese version of the sub, hoagy, English cucumber and creamcheese tea sandwich. C'mon it's just lovely rice, nicely seasoned with a little rice vinegar, soy sauce, smoky fish flavor; a little sweet, sour, and salty, sometimes dusted with sesame seeds, and wrapped 'round with a tasty sliver of nori (delicious, nutritious seafood). The raw fish is for those not faint at heart, like the delicacy made from puffer fish glands. I've often made sushi with a little center of slightly steamed carrots, sauted mushrooms, or tuna fish (with all the water or oil extracted!), or even leftover omelet. What is the BIG deal? Just something different than a po' boy, for the luva. Sure, I love eel nori maki (roll) and California roll with avocados, and I did try sashimi with raw, very fresh, tuna, but I was totally freaked out once when I was served a very rare prime rib, and who would dare eat raw pork or chicken? It's not the same thing at all. For one thing, it's more of a chance that a raw fish selected for legal sashimi comes from a tuna that lived in a very cold water with fewer parasites than a bottom freshwater fish like catfish, groupie, or muskie. Japanese origin of sashimi is pretty much only the coldest seawater fish, rather than one more contaminated with parasites. Not to say, though, the majority of sushi I eat are simply made from seasoned rice and wrapped with nori. Absolutely, not absurdly, scrumptiously delicious! C'mon try it, quit grossing yourselves out on the sensationalism of Enquirer-type reporting. Surely, the pharmacist CE that one updates oneself doesn't come from Ladies Home Journal!
Sorry to make you squeamish with a trip to Japan coming up. Their doctors are quite familiar with food-borne pathogens and should be able to fix you right up if anything starts taking up residence in your GI. I am not gonna say I am paranoid but some Immodium is also a travel "must have." You never know when a great tasting meal will go very wrong...no matter where you are. Lots of alcohol at all time may kill them before they even get a chance to take residence. That's it, lots of alcohol...
I am not knocking sushi as a cuisine. I rather enjoy watching it made and many times sushi pieces are artistically beautiful but I am still squeamish about eating animalian flesh that has not been cooked. I have eaten vegetarian sushi and was quite happy with it. I just have issues with raw flesh.
I'm so happy to have read this. Now I don't feel so "crazy" about my horrid fear of sushi and other raw foods. When I order a burger and they ask me how I want it cooked, I tell them, "make it a hockey puck". Thank you for this.
This post is great! Now I don't feel like such a freak about my horrid fear of sushi and other raw foods. When I order a burger and they ask me how I want it cooked, I tell them, "make it a hockey puck, I don't want worms"...ha! So, thank you for this.
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