Baakay wrote: Sensei, I want to know what cream of fugu soup is.
Fugu is a kind of pufferfish that ingests a marine bacteria which produces a powerful nerve poison, tetradotoxin. It is concentrated in the liver and some other organs, which experienced Japanese chefs learn how to isolate and remove, so the rest of the fish can be used to make what is supposed to be an extraordinarily delicious but extremely risky sushi, as the lethal dose is extremely small and undetectable by taste or smell. There is also a soup made from it, which can also be lethal as the active agent is heat-stable.
There is no known antidote or treatment for the poisoning, once it begins, and according to tradition, the chef who served the fugu dish is supposed to commit ritual suicide if his guest dies of it. In any case, a number of deaths occur yearly in Japan as a result.
You can follow this link to learn
some basic information on the phenomenon.
An interesting sidelight: tetradotoxin in smaller quantities is said to have been used by Caribbean witch doctors to produce the zombie state, in which the victim remains completely conscious but is considered dead for all intents and purposes by everyone else and so is buried alive (but dug up again by the witch doctor to become his half-mad slave).
I'm waiting for my fugu shipment to arrive via FedEx from Osaka....
with obsessive on the back...I'm not obsessed... 
), mangas (Get Backers, Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Gaiden, JIng), video game (FF Crystal Chronicles), a computer (now even on dial up it seems to fly) and my personal favorite the movie the Last Unicorn on dvd (loved it since I was five). Oh yeah....and my weight in chocolate....and half of it's still in existence 
