Washington Post writer David Nakamura passed the Japanese gourmet challenge for a piece in this weekend’s travel section, surviving a banquet consisting of course after course of potentially deadly pufferfish, or fugu. Fugu has the air of contraband in the US, where it is rarely served, but in Tokyo alone there are some 700 restaurants that specialize in it, and last year 500 chefs passed the rigorous training process required to prepare the delicacy. Nakamura visited a seminar where chefs are instructed in the finicky technique of separating the good – firm white fish – from the bad – neurotoxin-saturated organs and entrails. With typical Japanese precision, the most toxic parts of the fish are carefully labeled and disposed of by incineration, and the same applies to all those hundreds of fugu eateries across Japan. So does all this business-as-usual dampen fugu’s dangerous allure? Perhaps, as Nakamura ultimately feels emboldened to admit: “it tastes almost like chicken. “