A Michelin-star chef is contemplating adding ‘semen’ to the menu of his popular Spanish restaurant after being invited to try the ‘delicacy’ in Japan.
Remember when sheep testicles and tuna eyeballs were food items you’d only see D-listers eating on I'm A Celeb? Now, you’re as likely to see animal entrails being bolted onto expensive tasting menus as luxurious emulsions and edible flowers are.
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However, one celebrity chef may have gone too far where food is concerned as he’s contemplating adding 'semen' to the menu of his Madrid-based restaurant.
Dabiz Muñoz - a Michelin star chef - was apparently invited by Japanese chef Hiro Sato try a dish called shirako.
Shirako (often also spelt shiraku) is a white paste made from fish semen which is mainly served on top of rice or even on custard.
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The Japanese delicacy is revered for its silky smooth texture and striking sea-like flavour and is mainly extracted from pufferfish, monkfish and sometimes even cod.
However, getting shirako or the ‘fish semen’ out of the aquatic vertebrate is pretty difficult — a talented chef must gently separate the sperm sacs before extracting the pink or white-toned semen.
While the dish isn’t too popular outside of Japan, some regions have incorporated it into their daily lives under a different name.
For example, Romanians extract fish semen from river carp and use it to make ‘lapti’, which vegetarians can also recreate using potatoes, mushrooms and aubergine.
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However, Muñoz, 43, is debating bringing Shirako in its true form to his luxurious DiverXO restaurant in Madrid.
On his Instagram Feed, the Michelin-star chef revealed his thoughts, saying: “Grilled pufferfish semen… indescribable, it blew my mind enormously.”
And now, he’s wanting to make his own version in Madrid — but this has left social media users divided on whether they would actually order and enjoy the dish.
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One user took to Twitter to say that Muñoz was ‘doing too much bro’ while an Instagram user wrote: “Just thinking [about shirako] gives me a stomachache, and I eat everything.”
A third wrote: “This is animal abuse! How do they get it? Is everything worth it with such a gastronomically surprising? Even r**** defenceless fish and masturbating them?”
However, another Instagram user disagreed with the outrage and said: “I don’t understand, so much mental nonsense in the head when roe, female fish eggs, has been eaten for centuries.”
A second agreed and simply said: “Now that’s foodporn.”
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Fine-dining restaurant DiverXO doesn’t currently have shirako on the menu, so who knows when the dish may hit menus. You might even see it in your local pub soon...
Topics: Food And Drink, News
Ella Scott