Japanese company offers whale curry in bento boxes

Today Online 28 Nov 07;

TOKYO — A Japanese company said yesterday it would start offering whale curry in its takeaway business lunches, as the country pursues its controversial whale hunt in the Antarctic.

Asian Lunch, which says it sells 1,000 to 1,500 lunch boxes daily in Tokyo's business districts, will offer the meat once a week, starting tomorrow with a South Asian-style keema, a curry.

"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," a company spokesman said.

The firm is also hoping to attract young men who have never tasted the meat before, she said, adding that 600 servings had been prepared for its debut at a cost of 650 to 700 yen ($8.70 to $9.30).

This month, Japan infuriated its Western allies, particularly Australia and New Zealand, when it launched its annual whale hunt — which for the first time will also kill humpbacked whales.

Critics argue that the hunt is unnecessary, as most Japanese do not eat a lot of whale.

However, the government is trying to promote the meat, which is now served mostly in specialist restaurants.

The whale hunts are permitted via a loophole in the 1986 global moratorium that allows "lethal research" on the giant mammals. Environmentalists charge it is simply commercial whaling in disguise. — afp

Whale curry, anyone?
Straits Times 30 Nov 07;

A vendor packing whale meat curry in a lunch box to customers from a van in Tokyo yesterday. Whale meat curry made its debut at a takeaway business in Tokyo, attracting curious customers who seldom have the meat amid an international row over hunting the giant mammals.

Asian Lunch, which says it sells up to 1,500 lunch boxes daily in Tokyo's business districts, offered South Asian-style keema curry with ground whale meat in its first trial. Dozens of customers ordered the curry sold from a van at a cost of up to 700 yen (S$9).

Few Japanese have eaten whale since an international moratorium on hunting the mammals was imposed in 1986. But Japan still hunts the whales using a loophole that allows 'lethal research' on the animals.

This month, Japan angered its Western allies by launching its biggest whale hunt that will target humpbacks for the first time.