Trends in Japan » Deep-fry diving for goldfish in Japan

Deep-fry diving for goldfish in Japan

Written by: Michael Keferl on March 23, 2007 at 12:18 pm | In 01 Technology & Gadget Trends, 02 Marketing & Ad Trends |

This was unexpected, but is just waiting for a commercial application. You have to watch the video to believe it, but this restaurant** in Japan has a goldfish tank…in the deep fryer.

Because oil floats on water, despite the massive heat (163 degrees Celsius) the goldfish simply stay away from the surface and all is well. They eat the crumbs of croquettes and other fried foods that fall to the bottom, and can live in there for 5-10 years** as they happily clean away, ignorant to the fact that certain death awaits any potential escapees.

goldfish-deep-fryer

This one is hidden away back in the kitchen where customers can’t even see it, but it could easily be made for display near the dining area for everyone to see. No word on whether they turn cannibal and devour their battered bretheren when they’re chucked in along with some potatoes.

Of course, some people like aquariums for ambiance, rather than deep-frying. I wouldn’t fry these though.

**Update** Just a little clarification on this. This fryer (from the WaterFryer company) is specially designed to allow the water inside without blowing up (sugei!). The location is not clear, however. As one commenter noted somewhere, it took the guy 10 years to create it. As for how long the fish can live in there, I was lazy in my translation and made a mistake. I suppose they could live in there anywhere from ten years to 10 seconds, depending on how foolish they are.

Via The Best of Toretama
Photo credit here

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Fast Food Deep Fryer Using Live Goldfish Tank…

This is a deep fryer that uses a goldfish tank with live goldfish. Oil and water don’t mix, so the 163 degree oil stays on top. The fish eat the greasy food flakes that fall through, stay away from the……

Trackback by Consumerist — March 29, 2007 #
Now what we really want to know is the density of goldfish poop - is it lighter than water, or even worse, lighter than oil…?!

Comment by Jocke — March 29, 2007 #
Wow. This adds a whole layer of possibilities on how to decorate our kitchen…

Comment by Dave — March 30, 2007 #
Goldfish live in a deep-fat fryer…

A Japanese restaurant has combined a deep-fat fryer with a functional goldfish tank — the boiling oil floats on the surface of the cool water, and the fish get to eat all the crumbs of batter that dribble down. Because oil floats on water, despite the…

Trackback by Boing Boing — March 30, 2007 #
I don’t understand. Why doesn’t the water heat up and cook the fish?

Comment by Don — March 30, 2007 #
This does raise an interesting issue - how the devil do you clean it?

Comment by Stuart Brown — March 30, 2007 #
If they do try to escape, free dinner! Seriously, between the fecal issue and the general nastiness of fish (anyone else here ever had a fish tank?) I don’t care how hydrophobic oil is, I still wouldn’t trust cooking in that stuff because of the potential contamination of the frying oil. Sick.

Comment by Lewis — March 30, 2007 #
From the video, it appears the fish aren’t actually in the part of the fryer that’s being heated up. They’re just in the catchbasin that holds the fryer oil drippings.

Comment by Charles — March 30, 2007 #
Now, if they could match these fish skills with that deep frying tank, that would be awesome!

Comment by Sinisa Dukaric — March 30, 2007 #
anybody stop to get a translation? that seems to be a demonstration of a synthetic cooking oil that doesn’t explode with water, not some freakshow

Comment by dumba — March 30, 2007 #
If the surface of the tank is covered with oil, how does oxygen get in to keep the fish alive?

Comment by clare — March 30, 2007 #
Wow. Maybe one of the more evocative netweirdnesses I’ve run across. I was moved to write a tiny fable, an excerpt of which is included here Apologies to Leo Lioni for filching his fish’s name.

Comment by Webslog — March 30, 2007 #
Great, an animal torture machine. It’s certainly very clever, but seems incredibly cruel and 20th century.

Comment by Peter Cooper — March 30, 2007 #
Sorry, but I don’t believe it. Someone spent 10 years developing something that really doesn’t solve any problem at all? So the fish can eat a few crumbs of waste from the fryer? I don’t get it.

Comment by Angela Percival — March 30, 2007 #
a combo deep fat fryer and gold fish aquarium…

http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/index.php/deep-fry-diving-for-g……

Trackback by tribe.net: www.kilian-nakamura.com — March 30, 2007 #
I think the more amazing thing is how the hell he managed to throw a cup of water into the oil without having it EXPLODE like the first one. If anyone’s ever tried deep frying before, you know what I mean…

Comment by James — March 30, 2007 #
Somtimes you just do things for the sake of seeing it done. :\

Comment by Lone — March 30, 2007 #
While I’m not able to translate it, I would guess that the point is not the gold fish at all they are just part of the demonstration. dumba is probably right that the point is a fryer that is safer to use with food that still has water on the surface (such as frozen items). It also has the interesting side effect that the oil stays cleaner because food particles sink to the water layer.

Comment by Charles — March 30, 2007 #
This is almost certainly a demonstration of oil that won’t react to water during the frying process. As a chef I can tell you with absolute certainty that if you pour a glass of water into a vat of oil at 160+ degrees you are making a trip to the hospital in screaming agony - as is demonstrated by the outdoor scene with the wok.

As food is deep-fried it releases water. This causes splatters and spray that is, to say the least, dangerous and the source of many, many minor burns to kitchen employees. At 00:50 there is a scene in which the released water appears to be dropping to the bottom of the fryer well.

The water the fish are in appears to be several inches below the heating element. Perhaps they are not boiled alive because the cooler oil insulates them from the water above, that cooler oil being held in place by the convection current the heater creates. Yes, eventually the water will become hot, but this would work for the purpose of the demonstration. The goldfish serve to prove it is indeed water in the fryer, not some illusion. Of course, my understanding of the science involved is only slightly less shakey than my Japanese - of which I speak not a word - so take that for what it’s worth.

Comment by Rick Webster — March 30, 2007 #
Charles seems to be right–my boyfriend (who, conveniently, is Japanese and translated this video clip for me) says that the fish are just to demonstrate that there really is water under the fryer. The point of the video is that by having water underneath, the extra bits of batter from the croquettes fall down into the water instead of staying and burning in the oil (keeping the oil clean), and the danger of a water/oil explosion is reduced because the water sinks down before it can explode. (They actually never say anything about the goldfish eating the crumbs…)
Interesting video though!

Comment by Seanacey — March 30, 2007 #
Yes, who gives a rat about the fish. How the heck does he keep the oil from splashing when dumping water in it? That’s the shocker here, not the fish. How the heck does he do that? I’m hearing synthetic oil? I wonder how that affects the taste of the food - oil is everything in deep fried food. Now if there was some what the device was engineers to have the water “expode” down instead of up, that would be really interesting. In the fry pan the water has nowhere to go, it immediately evaporates and shoots up with splattering oil. If the water could go straight down would this still be the case?

Is it the device or the type of oil he is using?

Comment by matrix — March 30, 2007 #
Just read Seanaceys comment. Thanks! Seems reasonable, but I would never try it. : ) You’d think the water would evaporate before making it down. Also the ice he puts in sitting on top. crazy. Wonder how much the type of oil used has to do with it.

Comment by matrix — March 30, 2007 #
Even fish underwater, require the surface of the water to exchange oxygen from the atmosphere into the water…

I find it hard to believe that anything survives in this.

Comment by MisterQ — March 30, 2007 #
Trends in Japan - Tokyo Blog » Deep-fry diving for goldfish in Japan…

Man creates gold fish invention to clean his cooking oil…

Trackback by pligg.com — March 30, 2007 #
El pez que vive en una freidora encendida…

Aunque el aceite está a mas de 160ºC, el diseño especial de esta freidora y la diferencia de densidades (agua y aceite se mantienen en dos fases separadas) le permiten sobrevivir. Se alimenta de los restos de la comida que se fríe y que caen al fon…

Trackback by meneame.net — March 30, 2007 #
even i dont understand a word of what he says, there is something i can tell you: this is NOT your originay coocking oil so DONT TRY THIS AT HOME! (done it …). I guess this is a documentary about a new kind of revolutionary cooking oil. That liquid seems to only conduct heat on a relative zone.

Comment by VonderKatz — March 30, 2007 #
The reason the oil doesn’t splatter is because what causes the oil to spatter in the first place is the water molecules being excited to the point that it evaporates (BOILS). In the process it throws the oil everywhere.

With a column of oil, which is much denser than air, over the water the effective boiling point of the water has increased.

Also, if you were able to use two oils with different densities and placed the heating element closer to the top in the upper layer, you could probably provide an effective insulation layer while still allowing the crumbs to “fall” into the water.

Comment by yoo — March 30, 2007 #
Matrix:
The water isn’t poured in with the oil heated. The reason for explosions is that the hot oil causes the water to evaporate quickly to gas. Since the water is denser, it sinks and is covered by the oil before it boils. The gas is lighter and quickly wants to move upward.

If the water is in the bottom of the tank and the oil is added above, this won’t occur, provided the water is kept below the boiling point. This can be managed by having a buffer of cool oil. One can use the specific heat of the oil and water, as well as other physics stuffs to determine the depth of the buffer oil required.

Thus:
Hot OIL
———–
Heating element
———–
Buffer OIL
———–
Water below 100C

Additionally, there could be a cooling element below or in the water to help sap away the heat.

Comment by BobPaul — March 30, 2007 #
OK, some people aren’t reading other comments before posting here.

I suggest you read Seanacey’s comment. Her Japanese boyfriend translated it for her and explained everything.

The goldfish are just for demonstration purposes - to prove that the liquid below the oil is water, and that this guy has spent 10 years developing frying oil that doesn’t cause major water/oil explosions as seen in the frying pan clip.

He didn’t spend 10 years making a decorative fish tank to fry things in :]

Comment by Chai — March 30, 2007 #
Fish bowl in a deep fryer…

This brilliant (but obviously insane) Japanese chef created the Water Fryer, which is a fish bowl at the bottom of his deep fryer. Because the oil and water don’t mix, as long as the fish stay low they’re okay…….

Trackback by Geekologie - Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome — March 30, 2007 #
Goldfish tank - deep fryer…

Here’s a video making the rounds of the deep fryer that also feeds fish from Japan, clever - the oil floats and crumbs sink to feed the fish - [via] Link…….

Trackback by MAKE: Blog — March 30, 2007 #
Dumb question, but how does the fish breathe in water that is covered with a thick layer of oil? Eventually the oxygen will be depleted, and when the creature rises to the surface to gulp some air. . .

Comment by Lydia — March 30, 2007 #
This can’t be possible. I work in a kitchen and when water comes in contact with hot oil it explodes ( known fact ).

Like the above guy says this has to be the catcher.

Comment by Kyle — March 30, 2007 #
מדהי�? !!! �?קווריו�? בתוך סיר טיגון…

היפני�? ה�?לה מדהימי�?. ה�? המצי�?ו �?קווריו�? שנמצ�? בתוך סיר טיגון. הדגי�? חיי�? מתחת לשמן הרותח וניזוני�? מש�?ריות ה�?וכל לנופלות במהלך הטיגון. מעל …

Trackback by שווה קרי�?ה — March 30, 2007 #
Michael, this is a great clip. I don’t run a restaurant but I want one!
I was fascinated so took a bit of a look into the machine - it turns out that the lower half of the oild is cooled separately by a cooling pipe so that the water doesn’t boil!
Maybe I got a little carried away but I decided to call the company! (I found the number on the TV Tokyo site). What is really sad is that our poor friend at Masushima Co. (the company who made the water fryer in your video) seems to have gone out of business. Try calling: +81-3-3638-5511
After this show went to air (June ‘99) it looks like a bunch of companies released similar models (including Ricoh which owns the company you found) and put them out of business.
Poor fellows…

Comment by stippyred — March 30, 2007 #
there is no mention of any special cooking oil. the water below prevents the whole thing from exploding when more water or even ice is added to it cos the added water merges with the water below. the goldfish is for the wow factor.

Comment by bean — March 30, 2007 #
Hmm, I wonder how much the oil limits the speed at which oxygen gets into the water…

If the small concentrations of oxygen in it diminish… the fish would drown… in the water!

Comment by Rolando Garza — March 30, 2007 #
Chai

OK, some people aren’t reading other comments before posting here.

I suggest you read Seanacey’s comment. Her Japanese boyfriend translated it for her and explained everything.

The goldfish are just for demonstration purposes - to prove that the liquid below the oil is water, and that this guy has spent 10 years developing frying oil that doesn’t cause major water/oil explosions as seen in the frying pan clip.

He didn’t spend 10 years making a decorative fish tank to fry things in :]

Thanks for pointing that out.

Comment by Rolando Garza — March 30, 2007 #
Aceite Japonés que no salpica al hacer contacto con agua…

Una interesante demostración acerca de un aceite japonés bastante innovador que evita ‘explosiones’ o salpicaduras en caso de entrar en contacto con agua.
……

Trackback by Pervasive Smothering — March 30, 2007 #
When the fish farts the fart go up and arrives to the food.

Comment by Luiso — March 30, 2007 #
There’s a metaphor in there somewhere……

A deep-fryer that doubles as a goldfish tank:
Because oil floats on water, despite the massive heat (163 degrees Celsius) the goldfish simply stay away from the surface and all is well. They eat the crumbs of croquettes and other fried foods that fall …

Trackback by walking without rhythm — March 30, 2007 #
Deep-fry diving for goldfish in Japan…

A Japanese restaurant has combined a deep-fat fryer with a functional goldfish tank — the boiling oil floats on the surface of the cool water, and the fish get to eat all the crumbs of batter that dribble down….

Trackback by pligg.com — March 30, 2007 #
me parece cruel lo que estoy viendo, deberian quitar al pez de ese sitio y no dar publicidad a algo tan barbaro y ruin.
un saludo

Comment by Gon — March 30, 2007 #
¿Se puede saber como cojones respiran los peces si no se renueva el aire del agua?

Comment by Sentido Común — March 30, 2007 #
Demo food frying in the oil was splattering because of water boiling/evaporating - why wouldn’t the water and ice tossed-in boil/evaporate/splatter as well? Something’s goofy.

Comment by Robert — March 30, 2007 #
Sigh people read the comments before you comment. 75% of the comments wouldn’t exist if people had read because what is actually going on is explained.

Basically the guy figured out how to keep oil from exploding when water is added to it. It’s simple physics and why somebody hasn’t figured out before now is baffling.

The goldfish are in there to prove that is actually water. The whole point is the fact that this fryer is incredibly safe to use since it won’t have oil explosions when water is added.

Now I wonder how a fire would be dealt with. Should be a lot easier to put out. Right now you basically have to smother the fire or use a chemical fire extingusher.

Comment by readthecomments — March 31, 2007 #
“Demo food frying in the oil was splattering because of water boiling/evaporating - why wouldn’t the water and ice tossed-in boil/evaporate/splatter as well? Something’s goofy.”

The answer to your question is in the comments above yours.

Comment by D — March 31, 2007 #
Ok, once and for all, about the japanese translations. I’m Japanese, and obviously also fluent in english. I grew up speaking both languages and have worked as a interpreter/translator. Seanacey’s comments about the dialogue are correct.

1.There is absolutely no mention in the dialogue of a new synthetic oil. According to the dialogue, the water not boiling is due to the structure of the device.
2. According to the dialogue, the water drops below the level of the oil before it gets a chance to heat up and explode.
3. The ice demonstrates that there’s less splash when frying stuff coming from the freezer that maybe hasn’t thawed completely.
4. The fish are for demonstration purposes only.

The rest of what i write is not in the dialogue but just my own two cents/ guess as to why this is possible.

If you watch the demonstration with the guy dumping the glass of water into the heated wok, you can see that the explosion is not actually “instant”–there’s a slight delay before the explosion to allow him pull his hand away. It looks as though the mass of dumped water reaches the bottom of the wok and partially disperses throughout the hot oil before it actually comes to a boil. I think that that delay is long enough for the water to drop below the surface (or heated layer) of the oil before it explodes. Could it be that if the water has nothing to ‘hit bottom’ on (as in the tank) that prevents the boil/explosion?

As for the ice, it’s puzzling bc it’s not a mass of water dropping into the vat, but instead they’re droplets (with much higher surface area to volume) which should cool and come to a boil more quickly. Maybe the droplets formed by the melted ice (since they cling to the ice cube as a layer until it reaches a mass that is enough for it to drop off the cube) are cold enough that they take a second or two more to come to a boil–enough time to make it to the next layer?

Comment by KO-g — March 31, 2007 #
“When the fish farts the fart go up and arrives to the food.”

LMAO

Comment by Aneurysm — March 31, 2007 #
The Japanese are crazy, and they love to torture things.

Comment by Sjaak — April 1, 2007 #
This isn’t a self-cleaning deep frier. It’s a self cleaning aquarium. When the little waterborne critter dies, it will float up to the top and be ready for human consumption in minutes. Crispy!

Comment by sparcman — April 1, 2007 #
Thirty Three Things (v. 5)…

1. Transformational geometry and iteration in cornrow hairstyles (HT: Kottke.org) °°°°°° 2. Advice On How To Comfort A Grieving Parent °°°°°° 3. Don’t know the difference between French New Wave and Ita…

Trackback by the evangelical outpost — April 3, 2007 #
I agree with KO-g completely. Water is denser than oil, thus it sinks. That same density leads to a high thermal mass. Thus if the water is continuously cooled, it can remain cool despite the hot oil floating above. Energy would be required to heat the oil above as well as cool the water below so the contraption would likely be less efficient than a normal fryer, but the fry oil life would be extended because the “scuz” (that’s the technical term) would fall below the oil and keep the oil from going rancid longer. Pretty neat idea, really.

Comment by yep — April 6, 2007 #
Deep-fry diving for goldfish in Japan…

Because oil floats on water, despite the massive heat (163 degrees Celsius) the goldfish simply stay away from the surface and all is well. They eat the crumbs of croquettes and other fried foods that fall to the bottom, and can live in there for 5-10 …

Trackback by FatsLeroy.com | 33rd Degree, 11:11 — April 9, 2007 #
hi nice site.

Comment by alex — April 14, 2007 #
Produkt des Tages: Aquarium Fritteuse…

Das die Japaner ein eigens Völkchen sind, wissen wir glaub ich alle. Aber das hier setzt allen die Krone auf. Ein Aquarium unter einer Fritteuse.

Aber wie ist das möglich?
Öl schwimmt auf Wasser. Durch die enorme Hitze an der Oberfl&…

Trackback by Handelskraft — April 27, 2007 #
i luv fish and hate to see them get burned….save the fish and join greenpeace and then save the oil from the wailers..GOD SAVE THE WAILS

Comment by Greeny — May 9, 2007 #
Wow. This adds a whole layer of possibilities on how to decorate our kitchen

Comment by موقع — October 17, 2007 #
The Japanese are crazy, and they love to torture things.

Comment by eslamali — November 1, 2007 #
hi…

Agree…

Trackback by blog — November 1, 2007 #
As much as I hate Japan’s general interactions with sealife, this is really clever and could prevent a lot of horrid accidents occuring in the kitchen. On saying that, I somehow can’t get the image of goldfish deep friers becoming decoratively popular in widespread Japan…

Comment by Erin — December 18, 2007 #
That is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Definitely unique but like someone said before in a comment how come the water doesn’t heat up? Very interesting video.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle

Comment by TheGoldfishGuy — January 9, 2008 #
point of the video is to show this particular oil is not effected by water, vis versa. they are just using the gold fish as an example. but all in all, Japaneses do some weird shit to animals :s

Comment by by — January 20, 2008 #
This is impossible !!!!!!

Comment by Jeddah — February 5, 2008 #
The fish are for demonstration purposes only.

Comment by Tatyana — March 12, 2008 #
I just love the whole lack of necessity for this invention. There are so many easier ways to make commercial deep fat fryers cleaner, but this is the most entertaining and quirky by far! Go Japan!

Comment by sdsmith — March 12, 2008 #
ok, so 1 of the japanese ppl who posted here said he could translate, he said the water is added and sinks before it can explode. now my question is, how do you get the fish down there?i think that the way is added first.then hot oil. now it makes sense, and because the water is BELOW the heating coil and *heat rises* the water should not heat up too much. the only other thing that also confuses me is how the fish gets air.

Comment by Brad — April 21, 2008 #

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Deep-fry diving for goldfish in Japan

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