the.com/blowfish
a delicacy that doubles as a death sentence if the chef's hands ever tremble.
means A fish of the pufferfish family that inflates itself into a spiny ball when threatened, and whose flesh and organs carry a deadly toxin yet are eaten as a prized (and risky) delicacy.
from A plain English compound, blow + fish, naming the creature for its party trick: gulping water or air to balloon up to several times its size. The 'blow' here is the same old word — from Old English blawan, 'to puff or breathe out' — that gives us bellows and blowing up a balloon. English also borrows the Japanese fugu for the dish, but blowfish stays charmingly literal: the fish that blows itself up.
- toxin
- Carries tetrodotoxin, 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide
- no cure
- There is no known antidote, only luck
- chef license
- Japanese cooks train years for fugu certification
- inflation trick
- Gulps water to balloon and choke predators
- smart for fish
- Males carve elaborate sand circles to woo mates
blowfish cipher — cryptographic algorithm designed by bruce schneier in 1993 for data encryption
pufferfish — marine and freshwater fish species containing tetrodotoxin, found in indo-pacific regions