Whale Curry Adds Spice to Japan's Traditional, Controversial Dish

Whale meat again, don't know where, don't know when...

Whale Curry, NEW from Asian Lunch!

Japan's renewed whaling activity has generated loud protests from the world at large. One wonders, just what is done with the meat from hundreds of "scientifically killed" whales? Japanese food company Asian Lunch offers a spicy solution though there's something fishy about efforts to curry favor with hungry diners!


Whale, the OTHER endangered meat...

Whale Meat at High Noon

Whale meat has been described as having a "fishy" undertone - something a company called Asian Lunch is seeking to mask with its new Whale Curry bento boxes. The company sells as many as 1,500 lunch boxes each day to office workers in Tokyo's business districts and will begin offering a South Asian-style keema curry made with whale meat every Thursday. The cost of the meal? About $6.50 per lunch box.

Asian Lunch spokeswoman Yuka Yamaguchi praises the whale curry bento, saying "I hope many young women will want to have it as it's healthy with high protein and low fat. It's also rich in iron."


Whale Curry mix... thar she boils!

Currying Favor with Cetacean Curry

Both Asian Lunch and the Japanese government are hoping whale curry will work to make marine mammal meat more appealing to Japanese citizens. According to Greenpeace, "4,000 tons of whale meat sit unsold in cold storage while the Japanese Fisheries Agency attempts to launch desperate programs to get rid of it through school lunches and other subsidized programs."

Indeed, Asian Lunch was prompted to come up with new whale dishes by Whale Labo, a marketing firm set up and backed by the Japanese government's Fisheries Agency. Seems to me there's something fishy about efforts to curry favor with hungry diners! (via Yahoo! News)

Steve Levenstein
Japanese Innovations Writer
InventorSpot.com