©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken from the
Magazine
section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Savouring the whale
By Eric Johnston
Foreigners who visit Japan can find a
variety of sandwiches which they cannot
find in fast food restaurants back home,
but one group of restaurants called Lucky
Pierrot in the port of Hakodate is now
selling whaleburgers, burgers made with
whale meat.
The restaurant serves 16 different varieties
of hamburgers and 10 different kinds of
curry and 12 different kinds of ice cream.
It's nearly 3.30pm and almost everyone in
the shop, near the waterfront in Hakodate,
is young.
I go to the counter and order a
whaleburger. After paying for the order
and receiving a ticket (number 97), I sit
down and wait for my number to come up.
When the whaleburger arrives, it is fried
and on a bun with lettuce and mayonnaise.
It is black and tough. The cost is 380 yen
($3.35). I look around to see if I am the
only one eating a whale. Yes, I am the
only one. Later I tried whale sushi. It was
red, tender, juicy and tasty.
Earlier this year Lucky Pierrot sent out a
letter to ask customers what new foods
they wanted to see on the menu. Most
people replied that they wanted "Ghengis
Khan" burgers. In Japanese-English, this
means barbecued lamb, which is very
popular in Japan. The second choice was
whale.
Whaling has a long history in Japan, and it
is easy to find whale meat in any port,
such as Hakodate. Now the city is very
popular with Japanese tourists, who want
to escape the very hot summers in other
