The giant bullfrogs of Namibia are considered a delicacy in Africa, but eating them risks temporary kidney failure or a burning sensation in the urethra — and the wrath of environmental groups that have labeled them “near threatened.”

When Edward Bachner was arrested in July for buying enough poison to kill about 100 people, he inadvertently implicated sushi chefs as potential bioterrorists. The 35-year-old Chicagoan ordered 98 milligrams of Tetrodotoxin, a nerve toxin found in the Japanese puffer fish served as fugu, an expensive sashimi dish. Sometimes called the Russian roulette of sushi and once featured on an episode of "The Simpsons", fugu requires delicate preparation for its edible meat to be separated from its toxic internal organs. Before they're licensed to serve fugu, Japanese chefs undergo months of training and a rigorous exam which only 30 percent of applicants pass.
Even when properly prepared, fugu's toxicity is a critical part of its appeal. The flavor is so subtle it's nearly nonexistent, but eating it numbs the lips, and creates an alcohol-like buzz for the diner. Popular in Japan, it's banned in Europe and offered in a small number of restaurants in the United States and Korea.

But while it's the most notorious toxic fish, fugu is neither the most powerful nor the most commonly served. And beyond fish, there are scores of other foods whose deadliness equals their deliciousness, including commonly served fruits and vegetables that come with a sickening (and maybe lethal) kick. While the dangers can usually be avoided through proper preparation, this association with danger is irresistible to adventurous diners.

Fish present the most clear and present danger. There are hundreds of species of toxic fish, and many find their ways to dinner plates.

"People would definitely be surprised at how venomous fish are," says Dr. Leo Smith, assistant fish curator at the Field Museum in Chicago. Smith is a leading researcher of poisonous and venomous fish, and says that while snakes are more often associated with venom, there are far more poisonous species of fish. "Because humans live on land, they don't think of fish as venomous."

In nature, the most venomous fish is the stonefish, a fixture of Asian and tropic cuisine whose potentially fatal sting has been described as the worst pain a human can feel. However, human death from eating stonefish is rare to nonexistent.

"There's an important distinction you have to make between poisonous and venomous," Smith says. Venom is commonly deployed when a fish bites its prey, but certain fish are poisonous due to their diet and environment.

When stonefish venom is cooked, it loses its potency. And when served raw—as is the sashimi dish Okoze—its venomous dorsal fins are simply removed. The body meat that remains is delicious and nontoxic. On the other hand, puffer fish and the silver-striped blaasop do not deploy venom, but they are nonetheless toxic to humans because of bacteria in their diet.

As a result, puffer fish farmers in Japan have been able to breed non-poisonous puffer fish by restricting the fish's diet. The newly safe but still legally suspect puffer fish liver, where Tetrodotoxin is most concentrated, has reportedly become a sought-after underground delicacy in parts of Japan.

Of course, you needn't rely on the ocean to provide dangerous delicacies; a number of poison plants serve as side dishes and garnishes around the world. Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica. This bulbous-looking plant has the look and taste of scrambled eggs when cooked, and is often paired with stonefish and eaten as breakfast. But pray that breakfast comes at the right time—ackee can cause extreme nausea if served when it's not ripe enough, which occurs often enough for the condition to acquire the nickname "Jamaican vomiting sickness." It can be even fatal to children.

Like ackee, cassava is a dietary staple in the tropics. In Brazil, Peru, Cuba and other countries, it's used to make breads, ground into pastes and fried into cakes. Also like ackee, it can have undesirable consequences if not washed and prepared properly; the root vegetable contains enough cyanide to kill. Cassava is found in Africa, too, where it's at home with the Namibian bullfrog, a nasty-looking specimen that grows to the size of a housecat—and contains enough poison to be lethal.

The fans of these foods argue that deliciousness outweighs the danger. And anyway, a simple chicken dinner isn't guaranteed to be safe. According to the Center for Disease Control, an average of 600 Americans die from the chicken-borne bacterial disease Salmonella every year. On the other hand, annual worldwide deaths by fugu amount are just a small fraction of that.

Of course, Salmonella poisoning occurs if the chicken is undercooked or dirty—the chicken itself isn't inherently poisonous. James Briscione, chef and instructor at Manhattan's Institute of Culinary Education, speculates that it takes a certain mindset to order a dish with a lethal reputation. "I think it gets back to when a kid eats worms in the playground. It's an adventurous thing to do and you're going to have a story to tell."

巨大的納米比亞牛蛙被認為是非洲的名吃，但是在吃這道美味的同時要冒一下臨時腎衰竭或者尿道有灼燒感覺的風險——憤怒的環(huán)境小組給他們貼上“近處的威脅”的標簽。

當愛德華 . 巴赫納在7月因涉嫌購買足以毒死100人的毒藥而被捕時，他在不經(jīng)意間透漏壽司廚師可能是潛藏的生化恐怖主義者。這位35歲的芝加哥人購買了98克的河豚毒素，這是一種在名叫河豚的日本魨魚的身上發(fā)現(xiàn)的神經(jīng)毒物。河豚是一種昂貴的用來做生魚片的魚類。這種美食有時被稱為俄羅斯輪盤賭博壽司，并且以一種名為“辛普森”插曲為特色，河豚要經(jīng)過精密的準備才能把其可使用部分從它的內(nèi)部有毒部分分離出來。日本廚師要經(jīng)過數(shù)月的訓練并通過嚴格的考試才能獲準有資格烹飪河豚，這種考試的通過率只為30%。

即使經(jīng)過了合適的準備，但河豚的毒性仍然是關(guān)注的決定性部分。它的氣味是如此的微妙以至于幾乎被忽視存在。但是它能使食用者嘴唇麻木，發(fā)出像酒精的嗡嗡聲。這種魚在日本非常暢銷，在歐洲被禁止食用，而在美國和韓國，只有少數(shù)的餐廳才會提供這道菜。

然而，對于最著名的有毒魚來說，河豚既不是最毒的也不是最受歡迎的。除了魚以外，還有很多其他食物，它們的致命性和美味性可以并駕齊驅(qū)，包括含有致命性物質(zhì)的一些常見的水果和蔬菜。通常來說，只要經(jīng)過合適的準備工作，這些危險是可以避免的；因而，對于喜歡冒險的食客來說，這些具有一定危險性的美味是難以抗拒的。

這些美味的魚是最清楚和最當前的危險。世界上有好幾百種有毒的魚，很多的人找到可以把它們做成大餐的方法。

芝加哥費爾德博物館的管理魚類的副主管李奧 . 史密斯博士說，“人們對于這些的毒性的劇烈一定會極為驚訝的。”史密斯是含有毒素與分泌毒液的魚的首席研究者，他說人們通常會覺得蛇是有毒的，而各種魚的毒性可能更強。“因為人類居住在陸地上，他們很難想到魚含有劇毒。”

通常來說，世界上最毒的魚是石頭魚，需要用特殊的亞洲裝置和熱帶烹飪方法，而在這過程中如果人被致命的蟄了一下，那將承受人類所能承受的最劇烈的疼痛。然而，幾乎還沒有人因為食用這種魚而喪命。

史密斯博士還說，“含有毒素與分泌毒液是有著重要區(qū)別的”。分泌毒液的魚一般是指它通過叮咬被掠食者而使其中毒，但是一些特定的魚本身含有毒素，是與其飲食和環(huán)境有關(guān)的。

石頭魚經(jīng)過烹飪之后就失去毒性了。當人們把石頭魚做成生魚片而生吃時，它有毒的背部鰭的部分會被清除。而它的身體魚肉部分是非常美味而且無毒的。從另一方面來說，河豚和銀邊娃娃魚是沒有毒的，但是因為它們的食物含有細菌，所以人類食用它們還是會中毒。

于是，日本的漁民已經(jīng)可以通過控制河豚的食物來養(yǎng)殖無毒的河豚了。因為河豚集中含有河豚毒素，這種新型安全的河豚養(yǎng)殖方法仍存在法律質(zhì)疑，但是在日本的一些地方，它已成為地下頗受歡迎的一道美味。

當然，人們不需要非要依靠海洋來提供這種有危險性的美味：世界上有大量作為配菜和裝飾的植物同樣是有毒的。西非荔枝果是牙買加的國果。在烹飪時，這種像球形的植物看起來，聞起來都像是炒的雞蛋；通常它是和石頭魚成雙出現(xiàn)在早餐餐桌上的。然而我們要祈禱這種早餐一定要在恰當?shù)臅r間出現(xiàn)——因為如果西非荔枝果不夠熟透，那么它會引起極端的惡心。因為這種狀況太經(jīng)常發(fā)生而使西非荔枝果贏得了“牙買加嘔吐病”的綽號。這種狀況對小孩來說是致命的。

就像西非荔枝果，木薯是熱帶重要食物。在巴西、秘魯、古巴和其他的國家，木薯被用來做面包，熬成面糊或者烤成蛋糕。同樣想西非荔枝果，木薯也有同樣不受歡迎的地方，那就是如果它沒有清洗干凈或者沒有合適烹飪，那么它的根部含有的氰化物足夠使人致死。木薯是在非洲被發(fā)現(xiàn)的，和納米比亞的牛蛙是老鄉(xiāng)——能長成家貓大小看起來臟兮兮的一種生物，身上含有足夠使人致命的劇毒。

這些美味的粉絲們聲明說，它的美味性大于它的危險性。并且無論如何，人們也不能保證一頓簡單的雞肉晚餐就是絕對安全的。根據(jù)疾病控制中心的調(diào)查結(jié)果，平均每年大約有600人死于雛雞的細菌疾病的沙門氏菌。另一方面來說，每年世界范圍內(nèi)死于河豚中毒的只是其中一小部分而已。

當然，沙門氏菌中毒的發(fā)生，是因為雞肉尚未煮熟或者雞肉本省就含有毒素。曼哈頓烹飪教育學院的廚師兼講師詹姆斯 . 布雷斯少恩推測說這需要一種特定的心態(tài)用一種致命榮譽感來做一道菜。“我認為它讓我們回歸到小雞在草地上吃蟲子的情景。如果有一件具有冒險性的事情，你將會去做；那么就將會有一個故事，你可以用來講。”