Common name: Half-smooth golden pufferfish, Brown backed toadfish, Chinese blaasop, Spade blaasop

Japanese name: Shirosabafugu (白鯖河豚)

Taiwan common name: 棕斑兔頭魨、白鯖河魨、煙仔規、規仔、金規

Chinese common name: 棕斑兔头鲀

Korean common name: 하프문 골든 푸퍼피시

Scientific name: Lagocephalus spadiceus (Richardson, 1845)

Nigiri sushi detail: Half-smooth golden pufferfish (Shirosabafugu) Nigiri sushi

Characteristics:

Half-smooth golden pufferfish (Shirosabafugu) is distributed throughout Japan, the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, China and Taiwan. It inhabits the middle and lower coastal areas in schools. The body length is 30 cm. Its body color is dark grayish brown on the dorsal surface and silvery white on the lateral and ventral surfaces.

The Shirosabafugu closely resembles the Dark rough-backed puffer (Kurosabafugu) and Lunartail puffer (Dokusabafugu), but these species are venomous and should be treated with caution.

The muscle, skin, and testes of Shirosabafugu are non-toxic. It is generally served in a hot pot, miso soup, deep fried, or dried overnight. Among pufferfish, the flesh is soft and blends well with sushi rice. When made into sushi, it goes better with grated radish with chili pepper and ponzu (Japanese citrus juice) than wasabi (Japanese horseradish). Since it is the most commonly caught puffer fish, it is inexpensive.

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