Hokkaido chain to sell whale burgers

[sludge]

Hokkaido chain to sell whale burgers

HAKODATE, Hokkaido -- Lucky Pierrot, a hamburger restaurant chain active mostly in Hokkaido, will begin selling whale burgers on Thursday.
Whale and lamb burgers were the two most popular choices of fillings in a contest held by the Silk Road Group, which owns Lucky Pierrot.
"We want to improve the taste of both burgers," a spokesman for Silk Road Group said.
Silk Road Group conducted a contest to find a popular burger filling.
It was originally only going to sell a burger based on the most popular choice, which was the lamb that will be used in its Genghis Khan Burger - an idea proposed by Koichi Sera, 40, an assistant professor at Hokkai Gakuen University.
However, it also added whale meat, for its Kujira Burger, which was the second most popular choice. The idea for the whale burger was put forward by Toshihiro Okawa, 37, an employee of a whale meat sales company in Tokyo.
Lucky Pierrot's whale burgers will go on sale just two days after the International Whale Commission upheld a moratorium on commercial whaling. Japan had been seeking to rescind the ban that has been in place since 1986. (Mainichi)


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Just Updated! (NSFW)

[Andocrates]

I'm sick of hearing about whales. Fu*k the whales, if they were really as smart as people say they are they would defend themselves. Meanwhile all the tree-huggers could give a shit if half the world is starving to death, they just want to save some really large fish and protect a remote part of Alaska no one sees anyway.

P.S. to Sludge my rant was not directed at you, just a general rant. I'm glad you posted the story.

[Midwinter]

What a bunch of fucking clowns...

[emperor]

Petition

[blackcat]

greedy selfish fucking japs

i hope the whales carry ebola or something worse

[Samurai_Jerk]

Selfish fucking whaling comission trying to impose their misguided belief that whales are special on Japan and Norway.

[dimwit]

Whales are special

[Tsuru]

I'm getting so sick of hearing about those damn whales I might just fly up to Hokkaido this summer and try one.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

I'm getting so sick of hearing about those damn whales I might just fly up to Hokkaido this summer and try one.

You can get whale meet in tokyo, its not even that hard to find.

[Tsuru]

Granted, but I won't be going to Hokkaido for whale burgers only... perhaps I'll visit a nice onsen in the countryside to boot

Seriously though, I've been dying to go to Hokkaido ever since I first laid eyes on pictures of the scenery there... looks like a wonderful place in any season Besides that, high on my list of things to see is a real Tsuru in its natural environment... ergo: Eastern Hokkaido in winter!

[Taro Toporific]

Whaling Controversy on Yahoo! News Photos
AFP - Mon Jun 27,10:35 PM ET
South Korean activists hold an anti-whale burger protest near a hotel where 57th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Whaling Controversy on Yahoo! News Photos
AFP - Mon Jun 27,10:35 PM ET
South Korean activists hold an anti-whale burger protest near a hotel where 57th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission...

They're only against it because Japan is for it.

[Tsuru]

Whaling Controversy on Yahoo! News Photos
AFP - Mon Jun 27,10:35 PM ET
South Korean activists hold an anti-whale burger protest near a hotel where 57th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission...

They're only against it because Japan is for it.

Can I hear an "Amen"?

[Maths Dude]

Everyone knows that most of the "whale" sold in Japan is Flippers cousin, ie, the Dolphin.

[IkemenTommy]

School in Japan Serves Whale Curry

A public junior high school in Japan's northern port town of Kushiro had a new item on the menu for its students Monday _ rice topped with whale curry.

The meat is from minke whales the local whalers had caught just off the coast of Kushiro on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, Kyodo News agency reported.

Whale meat returned to public school lunches in Kushiro, the former whaling hub about 560 miles northeast of Tokyo, last year for the first time in 38 years as part of the city-sponsored campaign to promote whale meat.

Whale meat dishes, however, are not on the menu every day.

[blackcat]

I dont believe in reincarnation BUT

it would be good Karma if we all came back as animals
ie:

Americans come back as Horses/cows
Japanese come back as well....anything that swims (esp whales tho)
Koreans come back as dogs
Chinese come back as pigs/birds
Australians come back as kangaroos
Brits come back as sheep/cows
French come back as snails/frogs

vegetarians come back as lettuce???

[Greji]

I dont believe in reincarnation

I'm in the running to come back as an Erimakitokage

[IkemenTommy]

You better think twice before eating another whale meat..

Whale meat and organs have long been featured ingredients in traditional Japanese dishes. Today, the meat and organs of small cetaceans including whale and dolphin are not as widely eaten, but they are readily available ithroughout Japan. Now scientists have discovered dangerously high levels of mercury in cetacean meat products sold as food there.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has set the safe level of total mercury at 0.4 parts per million (ppm) for marine foods (the U.S. level is set at 1.0 ppm). Each year, Japan allows more than 22,000 small cetaceans to be legally harvested for food around the coast of Japan, although Naoko Funahashi, Japan's representative for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, estimates the actual catch is around 17,000-19,000.

Toothed whales--including porpoise, dolphin, and some whale species--are top predators in the sea life food chain. These small cetaceans therefore tend to accumulate higher loads of pollutants such as mercury than do filter feeders such as baleen whales.

"The real health problem is that some dolphin meat is being mislabeled as baleen whale meat," says Naomi A. Rose, a marine-mammal scientist with The Humane Society of the United States, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization opposed to commercial whaling. Most consumers can't distinguish the red steaks of small cetacean meat from those of baleen whale meat. "Whoever is getting those unlucky packages is getting a lot of contaminants," says Rose. "People are playing Russian roulette." more..

[dj-nosehair]

I had whale in shibuya, it was well ages ago though. Tasted proper good, and since it was already cooked.....

[Greji]

Hey, if you want a blubber burger, knock yourself out. As long as they are not encroaching on endangered numbers, what's wrong with it?

Having said that, I do have to say that I find a lot of fault with going over board on the enviorment and hug the animals band wagon. They are starting to find out now in the US about how wholesale catering to some of these groups no matter how far out their demands have been, has created serious social problems. Most recently, there have been serious questions raised about what impediments were placed in the path of building up the levee systems and disaster protection projects by demands of the Save the Wetlands and other Love Thy Animal groups. The score card on that will be forthcoming. But, this probably belongs in another thread....

[Buraku]

Petition

Fried whale burger woos young Japanese customers

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.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/todaysfeatures/2006/June/todaysfeatures_June23.xml§ion=todaysfeatures