Hey, I worked in Japan for a year and a half, one of our last meals was puffer, seved raw with sauce. The meal consisted of five thin sliced pieces about the size of a thumb nail. You put it in your mouth and let it kind of dissolve. It takes about 2 min. and you start feeling the poison going into your tonue and mouth. Itdidn't taste overly good, but feeling the tingle intoyour tongue was different and it was a rush (why???).
We were told that the cooks go to school for 5 years to learn how to prepare it.
That's my story, and for desert we fished an eel out of a little pool and the had abunch of common eels with one or two colorful ones. The object was to catch the colorful ones as they said they tasted better. After you catch it you give it to the cook and he BBQs it up for you on a stick.
Mark
PS. the meal which wasn't filling cost $1700.00USD per person