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I had whale in Ishinomaki a couple years ago -- I didn't actually know it was a whale restaurant when I went in (everything was in Japanese, no one spoke Englis

by rdl 11y ago

I had whale in Ishinomaki a couple years ago -- I didn't actually know it was a whale restaurant when I went in (everything was in Japanese, no one spoke English other than via a barely-working google translate on android), and while there was a picture of a whale somewhere, I just think of that as a "sea" thing, not food. Once I was in, I didn't want to be rude and leave, and was curious. It was basically beef or very fatty tuna taste; not worth the drama. Not bad, but I don't think it's worth the international condemnation to continue eating it. (JPY 3000 or so all-in; Japan outside the big cities is actually cheap.)

jpatokal 11y ago
For reference, though, that's kind of expensive as far as Japanese meals go. You can easily have a pretty nice full Japanese meal with less exotic protein (chicken, pork, beef etc) for Y1000.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  In Tokyo it's more like 1300+, but anyway there's a wide range of meal prices in Japan. You can eat for cheap but you can also pay a lot more if you want to go higher end.
- emodendroket 11y ago
  Yeah, but you can buy a big whale steak for like 400 yen if you're looking in the right places. Whale is cheap.
vidarh 11y ago
We had whale regularly when I was a kid in Norway in the early 80's. Once a week maybe. It was basically used as a cheap beef substitute, exactly because there was always that extra taste to it that while it wasn't bad, wasn't exactly something you'd seek out. It was also tough and required a lot of extra work to tenderize it. I think that at least in Norway whaling would have diminished further by now if the anti-whaling campaigns hadn't been so totally unsympathetic that it basically became a matter of national pride to keep it going - whale meat became less and less common to eat as the Norwegian economy grew and most people would just opt for beef anyway. Gently pushing for ever smaller quotas and stricter regulations instead would have suffocated the remaining industry quietly without most people even noticing.
77pt77 11y ago
JPY 3000 is way too expensive. I paid ~ 2000 JPY in Shibuya (downtown Tokyo for those who don't know) and this was at dinner (dinners are significantly more expensive)
- rdl 11y ago
  This was a multi hour meal involving a lot of alcohol, most of it shared with the staff. This is a small town and was basically ruined by the tsunami and trying to recover, so I was trying to spend as much as possible there. (I was also on my way back from one of the cat islands so in a particularly good mood.)
  - 77pt77 11y ago
    Understood. Good deal then.

by rdl 11y ago

jpatokal 11y ago

For reference, though, that's kind of expensive as far as Japanese meals go. You can easily have a pretty nice full Japanese meal with less exotic protein (chicken, pork, beef etc) for Y1000.

ekianjo 11y ago
In Tokyo it's more like 1300+, but anyway there's a wide range of meal prices in Japan. You can eat for cheap but you can also pay a lot more if you want to go higher end.
emodendroket 11y ago
Yeah, but you can buy a big whale steak for like 400 yen if you're looking in the right places. Whale is cheap.

vidarh 11y ago

We had whale regularly when I was a kid in Norway in the early 80's. Once a week maybe. It was basically used as a cheap beef substitute, exactly because there was always that extra taste to it that while it wasn't bad, wasn't exactly something you'd seek out. It was also tough and required a lot of extra work to tenderize it. I think that at least in Norway whaling would have diminished further by now if the anti-whaling campaigns hadn't been so totally unsympathetic that it basically became a matter of national pride to keep it going - whale meat became less and less common to eat as the Norwegian economy grew and most people would just opt for beef anyway. Gently pushing for ever smaller quotas and stricter regulations instead would have suffocated the remaining industry quietly without most people even noticing.

77pt77 11y ago

JPY 3000 is way too expensive. I paid ~ 2000 JPY in Shibuya (downtown Tokyo for those who don't know) and this was at dinner (dinners are significantly more expensive)

rdl 11y ago
This was a multi hour meal involving a lot of alcohol, most of it shared with the staff. This is a small town and was basically ruined by the tsunami and trying to recover, so I was trying to spend as much as possible there. (I was also on my way back from one of the cat islands so in a particularly good mood.)
- 77pt77 11y ago
  Understood. Good deal then.