Weird food, episode 317

Lately, fewer things have struck me as strange about Japan. I'm getting used to things. This includes food. There are many things I no longer consider unusual (which is not to say I now like all of them).

However, last weekend was a new low. I went to this izakaya and the specialty of the house seemed to be raw chicken.

!!!

Pete and I were rather dumbfounded. I've eaten many raw things in this country - horse, beef, whale, oysters, fish, sea urchin, etc, etc. But, as we pointed out to our surprised Japanese co-workers, raw chicken is Not An Acceptable Item Of Food in Western countries. We are always told, and told again, to Cook Chicken Extremely Well. Even a hint of pink could result in immediate near-fatal salmonella.

(Then again, I seem to recall that in Australia, it is not considered especially safe to eat raw eggs, and I've consumed a fair few of those here in Japan too.)

Anyway, of course we ate the raw chicken, and it wasn't too bad. What really took the cake was the condiment. It looked like a bowl of clumpy, transparent, wobbling hair gel. The others were scooping small gobs of it and putting it on their raw chicken.

"What is that?" I asked.

Collagen.

They were putting collagen on their raw chicken and *eating it*.

I followed suit; it didn't taste that strong or offensive. However, when I tried just a little of the collagen on its own, it immediately triggered the gag reflex and I had a bit of trouble keeping it down. It was salty and, well, tasted like eating a gob of hair gel.

I wouldn't recommend it.