By David Higgins

Jellyfish dishes are quite common on the menus of local seafood restaurants.

Not all news about jellyfish are about pain and suffering. Aside from the painful venomous stings from jellyfish, they are also edible. Did you know that Japanese people eat jellyfish?  There are many different varieties of jellyfish, and they are not all poisonous.

When I first met my Japanese wife, her mother was very worried that she was dating a foreigner.  During the second week of dating her mother demanded that we have dinner together, just her and I. We dined at a seafood restaurant that my wife was working at and I was very nervous to say the least. I could barely speak any Japanese at the time and my wife’s mother could not utter a word of English, although sometimes you can get by on few words while eating a meal together.

This seafood restaurant specialized in exotic seafood, and it just so happened that we received some jellyfish on our plates. Jellyfish is eaten raw just like sashimi and doesn’t have much of a taste but more of saltiness and a texture of jelly. This is why they add a salad-like dressing on top. I wanted to show respect so I politely tried the jellyfish that evening, hoping to score mother approval points.

While I was sleeping that night I woke up at about 4 am feeling quite strange. All of sudden I became very itchy and my entire body started to form a rash. Yes, you guessed it. I am allergic to jellyfish. This required a visit to the local hospital where I received an antihistamine injection that made me feel completely better within a half and hour.

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