I have a friend that is a sushi chef/assistant manager of Mr. Sushi in the Dallas area. I’ll have to ask him about the horsemeat and whale next time I see him.

Cass – Between you and Robert-Gilles, it’s fantastic to get the perspective of people who actually live in Japan and eat these foods I speak of! I agree that high quality horse and beef (and other foods we Americans might consider weird) should be pretty safe to eat. Unlike the overprocessed ground beef we have here, which recently (at least in my area) was involved in a health scare. E-coli or something like that. I have never had any sorts of raw beef (penniless college student – that’s me!), but I have heard of it and it seems to be well enough accepted in the U.S. Of course, if you were to eat with Son’s family you would be eating practically raw meat all the time anyways… they eat their beef practically off the cow! I’m kidding, but it’s definitely very rare. Okay, I’m rambling… it’s late! Thanks for your comment!

As for whether it’s safe to eat, we already eat a lot of rare beef. High quality farmed beef and horse sashimi should be as safe as eating a ‘blue’ steak, tartare or carpaccio right?

Karianne – True, eating it with a different name might help… because horse sushi doesn’t sound so great but sakura sounds much better!