Shirako

Thursday I went to an enkai (work party that consists of all you can drink and non-stop eating of generally delicious food for two hours).

When the first dish was served, I noticed this white, slimy mass surrounded by soy sauce and asked if it was some sort of egg dish. My co-worker to the right looked at me for a moment and said, "It's like ikura (salmon eggs), but from the male." Two thoughts flashed through my mind.
Number 1. Male fish lay eggs?
Number 2. Wait. It could not be---SPERM!

As these thoughts flashed through my mind, my co-workers across the table pulled out their Japanese-English electronic dictionary (I love these things) and went to work, giggling.
After reading through some definitions on the dictionary they told me that the dish was cod testes. I thought, Okay -- testes and dismissed the word sperm from my mind -- knowing of course that testes are full of sperm -- and why would testes be any more appealing than sperm?

Well, I thought, what the heck? It's not alive, it's not horse meat and it's considered a delicacy.

I picked up the small bowl and chopsticks, opened my mouth and took a couple of slimy, awkard bites. I don't know what to say about the taste, because I don't really remember. I just remember that it was slimy. My co-worker looked at me and said, "You are brave." She then continued by telling a story about the time she ate tiny fish swimming in soy sauce and unsuccessfully tried to eat live shrimp.

The middle dish is the shirako I ate:

A beautiful plate of sashimi that we were served:

Here is a picture from the enkai: