- I'm still hungry.
I want that fish sperm, man.
Come on, give it to me.
- I don't have any fish sperm for you.
- All right, all right, fair enough.
- If we finish this, we can eat the thing, though.
- Oh, we can eat that?
- Yeah. - Oh.
It seems like we should, it seems like a beautiful
opportunity for some good content on Thrillist.
- It's all about content.
What's up, y'all, I'm Timothy DeLaGhetto,
and this is Acquired Taste.
Now, one of my favorite things to do is learn
about different cultures by trying out their food.
That's why on this show, I'm on a mission to expand
my horizons by trying different foods from all
across the world and share it with my friends.
- Lord, have mercy.
- I see.
- Okay, this is good.
- Today, I'm in New York City where I found
a restaurant that serves tuna fish eyeballs.
Walk through a supermarket in Japan and you're likely
to find a tuna eyeball staring at you in the face.
They're often served as snacks or appetizers in Izakaya.
It might sound like a food tradition passed
down by generations, but they didn't become
popular till the 1990s, when people realized
they were packed with omega-3 fatty acids.
Now, you can score them for a dollar
a pop all throughout Japan.
Today, we're here at Wokuni to try 'em out with my boy,
Ben Sinclair, he's the co-creator, writer,
and star of HBO's "High Maintenance,"
and he has no idea what we're about to be eating.
Now, I know he's an expert on munchies,
but we'll see if this is a snack that he can get behind.
Before we do that, we're gonna head into the kitchen,
and Chef Kuni is gonna show us
how to break down a whole tuna.
Ready?
Let's get it.
Hello, Chef.
- Hi, hi.
- Hey, hey, nice to meet you, hello.
Okay, so I don't speak Japanese.
Well, I know (speaking in foreign language), that's it.
- Japanese.
- But I have a translator here to help me out.
Okay, so first of all, I didn't know that tunas
were so big before you start cutting into 'em.
This is a small one?
- Yeah, small, small.
- Okay, okay, how old were you when you first
ate the eyeball, how do you feel about it?
Mm-hmm, okay, yeah, my parents were
the same way, don't waste any food.
How do you eat the eyeballs, you put 'em
in a bowl and eat it like cereal, or?
- No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- Okay, I would love to see how you prepare the tuna
and cut it up, 'cause this is big, so I'm excited.
Wow, oh, that looks good, yeah.
- One more.
- Oh, my god, Kool-Aid.
Do you know how much this weighs?
- About 200.
200 pounds, yeah. - 200 pounds, wow.
Ew.
And not a drop of blood on his shirt, expert.
Okay, here we go, now, it's eyeball time, oh, my god.
Oh, God, it's so big, it's really big.
- Very, very good hole.
- Wow, can I hold it?
- Hold.
- Ew, ooh, oh, yeah, oh, my, yeah.
Feels like I'm holding just
cold pudding, like frozen pudding.
All right, well, thank you for my lesson.
I got my friend, Ben Sinclair, coming,
and I can't wait to eat how you prepare
these eyeballs right here, thank you.
Yo!
- Anthony.
- What's up, man?
- Tim. - Yes, yes, yes, how are you?
- I was calling you Anthony
because you were just like,
like an Italian guy in the corner of the restaurant.
- Is that what it reminded you of?
- Reminded me of a guy named Tony.
- I was lonely, glad you could make it.
- I'm glad I could, too, this is awesome.
- Are you hungry?
- Pretty much always hungry.
Right now, I was going to eat lunch,
and I'm like I'm not gonna eat lunch.
I'm gonna save it. - Good.
Bruh, I skipped lunch, as well, and it's a good thing,
because we got a lot of food for you.
Actually, I haven't even had this
thing that we're gonna eat today.
- Yeah, all right, I have theories.
- Do you, what's your theory?
- I think it's gonna be a sperm sack.
- I wish.
- Dude, I thought it was gonna be a fish sack of sperm.
- Similar boat.
- So it's a sex organ?
- No, not same boat at all.
- All right, so it's fish, same boat.
- I don't know, stop trying to ruin the surprise.
- I'm not trying to ruin it, I'm just trying
to get the audience thinking, too.
It's not a monkey, is it?
It's not a monkey, I don't wanna do that.
I'm not prepared for primate.
- Would you stop ruining the surprise, please?
- All right, all right, fair enough.
- You're killing the surprise.
- All right, fine.
- All right, Chef Kuni.
- Hi, Chef Kuni.
- This is Ben.
- Nice to meet you.
- Thank you. - That looks beautiful.
- Oh, my goodness. - This is maguro steak.
- What's that?
- Pure fire, man, pure flame.
Oh, yeah. - Oh, my gosh.
- Yeah, it's a cold day.
- It's cold in here. - Right?
- Oh, there's more food.
- [Kuni] Yeah, more food.
- Oh, my gosh.
- [Kuni] The assorted maguro.
- Oh, my goodness.
- So many lights in your food.
- Thank you, I know, it's like we're in Vegas.
- And then, the A5 wagyu.
- A5 wagyu, man, you crazy.
You crazy.
- Enjoy.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much, man.
- Thank you, thank you.
Man, they're hooking you up.
- I mean, I'm gonna be full of mercury
by the end of this meal.
It's gonna be delicious.
- [Timothy] Mm-hmm.
- This is fantastic.
- That's great, that's tasty.
Oh, a little bit asparagus there.
- [Ben] That fire is so good, man.
- Would you call yourself an adventurous eater?
- Yeah, I guess I am, I'm curious, you know.
I'd like to be a ethical eater, and one of the reasons
I was interested in coming on this show is
because I think people should stop eating so much beef.
- Oh, okay.
- They should eat more venison.
More other things that need to like,
like you know deer populations are
out of control in New York, it's true.
- Right, so it's not a save the animals thing.
It's just more of a we're eating too much beef.
- Spread it out, yeah, spread it out a little bit,
you know, whenever, people aren't gonna stop eating
meat across the planet, it's just not gonna happen.
- And that's what I'm saying, I feel like, you know,
we should try just eating different animals, you know.
- And like organ meat; it's really good for you.
- You eff with the organs?
- Yeah, I do. - Me too, me too.
A lot of people don't. - Liver is so good.
- I like the liver, a lot of people aren't a fan.
- Yeah, 'cause they're basic. - Yeah.
Basic-ass bitches.
- Yeah, they're basic bitches.
- Yeah, yeah, so what would you say is like
the most adventurous or, I don't know,
most unique thing you've eaten in your travels?
- I guess there was some coagulated
blood in China where I'm like--
- Oh, like the cubes?
- Yeah, pretty wild, oh, in Cambodia, I ate some turtle.
It was a very, like turtle sucks, man.
- It wasn't good?
- It tasted like stringy, dirty, it tasted like dirt.
- Really?
- Yeah, yeah, and blood, turtle blood, too.
I think that was also the problem, it wasn't great.
- All right, well, I'm glad you're not picky, bro.
- I'm not picky, I'm looking for shock value for myself,
but I think, like we said, I'm getting older, as well.
So I'm like what's this all about,
who are you trying to impress, bro?
- Well, what's coming up might shock you a little bit.
You know, it definitely shocked me.
- Is it a human?
- It's not a human, but-- - Okay.
Well, then, try your best.
Is it a, okay, tell me what body system it's from.
Is it from the endocrine system?
- It's- we're not gonna tell you anything.
- Aw, man, this is bullshit.
I wanted to guess.
- Speaking of trying things out, you have a show on HBO.
- It's true, this is the fourth season of my HBO show.
- "High Maintenance."
- Yeah.
- That's dope, what was that process like?
- In 2011, I filmed the first episode
with my co-creator Katja, and we made episodes on Vimeo
until 2014 when Vimeo's like we'll pay for the episode.
- That's amazing.
- And then, around 2015, we started making 'em on HBO,
and they're not $300 anymore.
- They're not $300, that's just for crafting.
Yeah, yeah.
- And I don't know, man, we're doing a fourth season.
It seems like it's going well, everyone's happy.
- That's awesome. - Got a little community.
I'm a pretty lucky guy.
- That's beautiful.
- Chin-chin.
- Excellent.
- Well, are you ready for the surprise?
- Yeah, I'm ready for the surprise.
- Okay, let's do it!
Hello.
- Here we go.
- This is tuna eyeball.
- Tuna eyeball.
- Tuna eyeball, this is more mercury yet still.
- Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of mercury.
- All right.
- And now, this is ika.
- Ika.
- Squid.
- Squid ink or just?
- [Kuni] On the inside is hot sake.
- [Timothy] Oh, sake in there.
- [Ben] Oh, wow, and that is a squid, oh, wow.
The bottom, an entire squid. - It's just a whole ass squid.
- Kanpai.
- Cheers, cheers.
- Oh, yeah, it feels good, yeah.
- [Ben] Thank you so much.
- So where did you get the tuna from?
Wow, okay, and how do we eat this?
- Suck the what?
- Suck the eyeballs.
- Suck the eyeballs, all right.
- [Timothy] Okay, thank you.
- Enjoy.
- A'ight.
- I'm down.
- Of course, you're down.
- I'm not freaked out by this at all.
- I didn't think you would be.
- It's weird to be freaked out
by eating a fish's eyeball, I think.
- It's was little weirder when you saw it
in it's raw form, you know, 'cause it was like,
they look so big, you know what I'm saying?
- The eyeball, 'cause the tuna is like this big, right?
- It's huge, I had no idea they were that big.
- Yeah, they're huge.
- So the eyes, he dug it out of the socket, basically.
- You've been here a while, huh?
- I've been here all day.
- So this looks just like some nice soup, you know.
- Yeah, this looks great.
- Well, let's do it. - Is this hard for you,
'cause you saw the fish in its full form?
- No.
- All right, no mercy.
- No mercy, no pity.
- Bing. - Boom, here we go.
Which one do you want, you want this one or that one?
- I want-- - You're the guest.
probably this one on the right.
- Take it.
- All right, I'll wait for you, is this saffron on top?
Dude, get some of that red shit.
- Oh, I will, thank you, cheers.
- Cheers, ding-dong.
- What do we, hold on, I guess we just.
- Oh, this is it's cochlea, this is it's--
- Is it, like the back, oh, the actual--
- Yeah, yeah, that's the iris.
- Hmm.
- And I don't wanna.
- You just put the whole thing in your mouth?
- Yeah, dude.
- Wow, you're a boss.
- It's an eyeball.
- Yeah.
- I don't wanna have half an eyeball.
- Yeah, I guess you're right.
- I want a whole ball.
- Hmm.
- That's great. - That's tasty.
- Yeah, dude.
- It almost tastes just like,
like a nice just fatty piece of meat.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Almost like I sucked off a piece of oxtail,
you know what I'm saying?
- Exactly, no, it's like less gelatinous than I thought.
- [Timothy] Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, I'm feeling really great about this.
- Do you just swallow the whole thing?
- No, I chewed it with my chompers, bro.
- With my chompers.
- See, look at all this you're doing.
You're like relishing it.
- I am, I'm trying to enjoy it, you know.
- I mean, I guess I enjoyed it.
I got psyched, I psyched myself out, it happens.
- You think it would like gush more into your,
like if you bit into an eye,
it would be like a tomato or whatever.
- Right, right, right.
- But like you were saying, it's like a fatty piece of meat.
- It just tasted really like a really
tender, fatty piece of like beef.
- You know, I feel like some of the difficulty
that people have with things like eyeballs,
and sperm sacks, and et cetera are the
gelatinous part of it, the gushy part of it.
- Yeah, texture is a big thing for a lot of people, yeah.
- Yeah, but it's like get with the program, man.
- Get with the program!
- Yeah, gelatin is incredible.
- Shit's gonna be mushy sometimes and that's okay.
- If it's not mushy, it's not right, man.
- Yeah.
- Hey, what's this, this is kind of--
- [Timothy] I think that's another piece of--
- [Ben] Oh, this is very--
- [Timothy] That's a cornea.
- Oh, yeah, dude, yeah.
- [Timothy] Yeah.
- It's really beautiful.
- It's very beautiful.
- It's the aqueous vitae or aqueous humor.
- You're making up words, dude.
- No, there's words, man.
I'm not making them up.
What do people who don't, dude, that was awesome.
That was so good what I just ate.
- Was it?
- Yeah, people just throw out the eyes?
- I guess, oh, yeah, I got one, too.
- Yeah, dude, it's so good, right?
- That's really good, it's kind of like
a salty, sweet piece of jello.
- Yeah, dude.
Dude, I can't believe we're only eating this eye.
I'm so bummed out, man, I was like really
prepared for all sorts of things.
- For like a feast?
- I would have another one if it was offered.
You didn't eat all of yours, man.
Something happened over there.
- You're welcome to have the rest of my eye.
- No, I'm not gonna eat all of yours,
but I just wanna know why you didn't eat it.
You're not even eating your eye, man.
- I'll have my cornea, I'll have my cornea, mm-hmm.
- Yeah, bro, who's the host here, man?
I'm getting you to eat.
What's going on?
- It's a little too mushy, this last little bit.
- Timothy, what happened, man?
I don't wanna embarrass you, man.
- How dare you boss up on me on my own show.
- Listen, you're gonna talk the talk,
you better walk the walk, man.
- I'm full.
- Let's eat this.
- Okay.
- It's a beautiful urn.
- Do it, do it, do it, do it.
- I'm gonna put my ashes in something like this.
Just kidding, I'm Jewish, I don't do that.
Uh-uh, you can't eat it.
- No, nah, they gotta do stuff to it, oh, yes.
- This is the ika.
- That's the squid?
- Oh, thank you, thank you,
thank you, thank you. - That looks so delicious.
- Oh, thank you. - So good, very good.
Thank you.
- Man.
- How do you say, "You're welcome"?
Thank you, thank you.
- That's pretty good.
- It's tasty, it's like squid jerky.
- Mm-hmm, I like that.
- It's really good.
Well, hey, man, I'm glad you're down to experiment,
come to try new things with me, 'cause I feel like
that's how you really learn about yourself, you know?
Learn about new cultures, try some new food,
try some new things out, learn about them,
learn about yourself, and it's lit.
- (speaking in foreign language) Now, say, "You're welcome."
(speaking in gibberish)
Thanks, Thrillist.
I would totally eat another.
- No, I would, too, but--
- But not all of it.
I didn't know you were gonna put
the whole thing in your mouth.
If you woulda been like, "Yo, let's fucking do it,
let's put the whole thing in our mouths,"
then I woulda been like a'ight, cool.
- I thought it was unspoken,
that it was gonna happen.
- He said to just suck on it.
- Oh, he said to suck on it?
- Yeah, we asked how to eat it,
he said just suck on the eye.
- He said just suck on the eye?
- Yes.
- No, I don't remember that at all.
- Yeah, that's what he said, and when I looked up
and yours was gone, I was like, oh, shit!
- I don't know, man, I don't think
you're supposed to just suck on an eye.
I don't think, you're supposed to fucking down the eye.
- You downed the eye.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- You're crazy.
- Man, I can't believe it.