The fact that o-toro used be thrown to the cats is quite famous, but I’d always wondered why the switch happened. According to the (often unreliable) book Sushi and Beyond, it was a combination of getting a taste for fattier foods due to a more Western diet, and us fat-loving and more and more sushi-loving Westerners giving o-toro a status that came back to Japan. Then again, it could just be a case of the Japanese eating absolutely anything before, during and after the war and then getting a taste for it, like chicken cartilage and stomach yaki niku, and like powdered eggs and chicory coffee in the UK.
Why is the fattiest part of the tuna the most expensive?
March 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm (Sushi and sashimi)
Japan Explained FASAQ 
tudza said,
March 8, 2011 at 2:19 am
Chicory coffee is good stuff. Serve it up with sweetened condensed milk for what the local coffee shop calls a Vietnamese Latte.
Only had chicken cartilage once, but it was indeed crunchy good.