New Delhi, Sept. 13 -- Delicacies lend themselves to great stories.

In Japan, they prize fugu, the poisonous puffer fish, from which specially trained chefs must cut away organs imbued with a potent neurotoxin. In Italy and France, they seek the truffle, the black mushroom sniffed out underground by dogs (and traditionally, pigs).

My favourite story comes from Iceland, where hakarl, fermented Greenland shark, is never eaten fresh because of its high concentrations of urea and other toxins. It is cut into pieces, buried or placed in a container and allowed to ferment for several weeks or months, after which it is dug up, cut smaller and hung to dry for several months. Then, it's safe to eat-if you can cope with its famously ammonia-like ...