Most Yukkuri-based food doesn't look too appealing. Those Yukkuri pancakes look pretty good, though. Had some red bean paste pancakes at a ramen bar the other day; that shit's killer.
I think a more appealing line of food would be where the yukkuri are killed slowly for the customer and for the increase in sweetness, doubling as food preparation and a show as well, then the paste used instead of the actual corpse. Some people find the eyes and what-not to be disturbing and by no means appetizing.
A more "delicacy" food line would be, y'know, the whole yukkuri, probably alive for the customer to torment for the increased flavor. Some people'd get a kick out of it. But again, it wouldn't be so popular with a lot of other folk.
I saw a news report about a Japanese restaurant where a fish is plucked from a tank, diagonal cuts are made in its flesh, its is floured and battered, and quickly dipped for a few seconds on each side in hot oil. It is plated and presented to the customers while it is still alive. The customers use chopsticks to pull off pieces of flesh while the fish's mouth is still working, although I assume all the nerves are no longer working.
Actually, bacteria aren't much of a concern in the above preparation. The thing here being that it's fresh. The issue with bacterial infections from undercooked seafood versus the flesh of mammals is that fish have much less acidic body chemistry than mammals, so, once dead, bacterial colonize and grow in the fish's tissues much more rapidly than they do in mammalian flesh. Healthy, living fish have immune systems which prevent bowel-wrecking bacteria from living in their tissues, much like we do, so if the fish is visually free of sickness and its flesh is consumed immediately after death or while still living, there's no way to get a bacterial infection from it.
The issue is that the fish's immune system CANNOT clear encysted roundworm larvae in their muscle tissue, and these larvae can only reliably be destroyed through extreme heat or cold. And a quick dip in hot oil for a few seconds wouldn't allow the heat to penetration the flesh deeply enough to kill larvae in the muscle tissue.
In my headcanon that wouldn't be an issue with yukkuri, since I subscribe to the line of thought that their magic keeps their innards free of most infections and parasites until after death.
Skribulous said: ...I still think this'll taste like shit.
If it can't be infected or spoiled in any way, then the quality of the beanpaste comes down solely to the amount the yukkuri suffers before it dies.
With rare exception (I remember one story about a kid taking a class field trip and finding the pastries made from horribly suffering yukkuri to be "gamey"), Yukkuri suffering makes the paste taste better to the point that calculated torture can make it taste sublime.
From there, isn't it just a matter of how the other ingredients go with bean paste? I can't eat sushi so can't offer proper input, but I imagine the ingredients wouldn't class too badly.
Perhaps it just offends your sensibilities because of how pathetic yukkuri are?
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