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Fried whaleburger woos young Japanese customers
Updated: 2006-06-19 15:22
A young Japanese woman bites into a fried whale
burger.[Reuters]
To woo young customers more fond of burgers than traditional
whale cuisine, a Japanese restaurant has come up with a new taste sensation: the
fried whaleburger.
The sandwich, which features fried whale meat nestled
in a bun with salad greens and lashings of mayonnaise and ketchup-based sauce,
is the creation of a small whale restaurant in the town of Wada, about 100 km
(62 miles) southeast of Tokyo.
"Young people think whale and bread
really go together well, so the burgers are quite popular," said restaurant
owner Akiji Ichihara.
For the whaleburger and a whale cutlet sandwich,
both of which sell for 300 yen ($2.62), he uses the meat of Baird's Beaked
whales taken by Wada-based ships.
The third sandwich option, a whale hot
dog priced at 350 yen, is made from minke whale meat taken by the "scientific
whaling" programme run by the Japanese government.
Customers gave the
sandwiches, which Ichihara serves only one day a month, good reviews. On one
record day he sold 700.
"I thought whale meat was too tough to eat, but
actually it's tender and very delicious," said Yuko Takahashi, 25, as she bit
into a whaleburger.
Juichi Matsunaga, 38, chowed down on a whale cutlet
and whale hot dog, which he also pronounced delicious.
The praise is
music to the ears of Japanese policymakers, who say that eating whale is a
treasured cultural tradition but find demand low among young consumers, many of
whom have few chances to try the usually pricey delicacy.
Japan stopped
commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international moratorium but began
what it calls "scientific whaling" a year later, arguing that endangered species
need protection but others, such as the minke, are numerous enough for limited
hunting.
"I think we could whale more, because the number of whales has
now increased to the extent that they are damaging the ecosystem by eating too
much fish," Matsunaga added.
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