Goldfish living in a deep-fryer?

by Joanne Lutynec, Posted Mar 28th 2007 @ 3:28PM

Sometimes we run across some pretty strange things, and when it comes to food and restaurant oddities all I can say is I'm glad this one is for viewing rather than eating. A restaurant in Japan apparently has goldfish living beneath their deep-fryer. The oil from the fryer naturally floats on top of the water, allowing the fish to ~~live comfortably~~ survive oblivious to the extreme heat just inches above them. As far as feeding the fish, they dine on the little crispy crumbs that sink to the bottom after each fry. One might wonder if that is actually good for them, but I digress.

I'm fairly certain the question here is why? Really, why would someone come up with this idea in the first place? I could almost understand it if the fryer was in view of the public, but since it isn't, the only people who can actually see the goldfish are those working in the kitchen. To each his own though, I suppose.

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Filed Under: Food Oddities, Trends, Food Gadgets, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants
Tags: asia, deep-fryer, food oddities, Gadgets, goldfish, japan, oddities, restaurant

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-28-2007 @11:05PM Dave said... Fish are pretty hardy creatures when it comes to temperature. My thought is how does the water get oxygenated?
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3-28-2007 @4:10PM Michael Schmitt said... Even though water and oil don't mix, the heat from the oil will still transfer into the oil since they are touching... assuming my memory on heat transfer and physics are right.

... and how does oxygen get into the water? And how sanitary is it to have all that fish waste (AKA crap) sitting in the bottom of the water/fryer?

Is this an early April Fools joke?

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3-28-2007 @4:17PM Jason Truesdell said... I've seen this fryer at a trade show, Hoteres Japan. More on my blog. They did the goldfish thing last year, and in 2004 they demonstrated it by terrifying a woman from the audience holding an ice cube.

I'm a bit surprised that a restaurant would showcase their fryer that way, though. The Clean Fryer demo I saw was designed to show off the ability of the fryer to circulate water and debris (crumbs) down to a holding tank, reducing the chance of frying accidents (like with those ice cubes) and dirty, smelly, burnt-tasting oil.
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3-28-2007 @4:19PM Jason Truesdell said... On the goldfish demo: http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2006/03/15/2310.aspx

On the ice cube/glass of water demo:
http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2004/03/12/155.aspx
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3-29-2007 @12:55AM Jason Truesdell said... I didn't have a chance to watch the video when I commented earlier today, but actually that's basically a PR video from the Clean Fryer company. I can't quite remember the company name, but they do have an office in the US somewhere, maybe in Texas, as I recall. It's a very similar demo to what they do at the restaurant trade show.

Of course the goldfish wouldn't be kept there in a real restaurant; that's merely to show off that the water and waste material all sinks to the waste tank and is reasonably cool. Normally it's emptied and cleaned from time to time, just like you would if you had a regular fish tank... so I guess that's the only connection.

The dialog is just explaining how the fryer works and what happens when food debris or excess water is inserted into the fryer... line cooks would probably tell you that pouring a cup of water or ice cubes is not a good idea in a normal fryer.

I suspect that they could convince some insurance companies to offer discounted rates to US restaurants that use this kind of fryer, since it reduces the risk of a number of serious safety concerns.
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