"Meeting" with Ikizukuri

An instant after our waiter, dressed in white, bowed with a proud smile, I shut my eyes. My brain was screaming and couldn’t believe what was placed in front of us. Only a few minutes earlier, the small Tokyo restaurant looked very appealing through its window beaming light timidly on a tiny, dark street soaked in rain and it didn’t matter that they had menus only in Japanese. Sitting comfortably, we happily pointed to some Kanji letters beneath a nice photo of a sashimi plate and waited eagerly for a delicious meal.

I reopened my eyes after a while, but the scene at the table was still the same. Two black, ball-shaped, shiny eyes were staring at me whilst a lobster’s antennae seemed dancing. The poor creature was still alive. Its white flesh was taken out of its greenish shell to elegantly present a highly valued delicacy. It was a perfect dish from Japanese point of view; supremely fresh and beautifully decorated with purple orchids and wasabi sculptured in a leaf form. It would absolutely satisfy Japanese. They “eat with their eyes first and with their mouth afterwards” and equally admire beauty and quality. Western taste was substantially different in this case. We could not perceive beauty in a live being on our plate.

That’s how I “met” ikizukuri. The word means “prepared alive”. It says it all! Seafood flesh is sliced, but the creature’s internal organs are left intact to keep it alive. Some Japanese find it an extraordinary feeling to swallow such a fresh piece of meat that was alive the instant before they ate it.

While in Rome, do what the Romans do.

My “partner in the crime”, bravely, disguised the dish and moved the edible white flesh to a small, white plate. I tasted it, but a picture of frightened eyes was haunting my mind. I stopped eating, poured some sake, beckoned the waiter and pointed to some Kanji letters beneath a beef photo on the menu. An ikizukuri version of it shouldn’t exist, should it?