Food Eaten Alive and Moving?

[Jim B.]

"I've been looking forward to gagh. I haven't had it for quite a while. Very fresh." - Jean-Luc Picard (TNG: "Unification I")

Gagh are worms literally eaten alive, in the fictional Star Trek universe at least. And while some might find this distasteful, it makes me wonder. Are there any modern human cultures that eat their food alive and moving?

I know oysters on the half shell are often split in half, and thus killed just before they're eaten. But I assume this hypothetical delicacy I'm talking about is found in a non-Western culture.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Octopus can still be moving when served. The term "alive" may not be totally accurate, but they're moving!

[Krokodil]

Originally Posted by Covered_In_Bees!

Octopus can still be moving when served. The term "alive" may not be totally accurate, but they're moving!

My first night in Korea, my boss took me to a restaurant where the sushi was so fresh, the octopus tentacles wriggled as I ate them. Baby octopi are eaten alive and whole, but I took a pass on those.

[zoid]

I've seen a lobster have it's tail cut off and the meat inside quickly sliced and eaten. This iss all done tableside as part of the presentation. Unless lobster die within a minute or two of having their tail cut off then they're alive and sitting on the table while their tail is being consumed.

[Rich Mann]

Fresh Mirugai (horse-neck clam) sushi will retreat from your teeth. Quite an unusual sensation.

Although the organism as a whole is technically dead in that it could not be returned to its ecosystem and breed more baby clams, I believe that the argument could be made that it is still in a very real way alive if it still has cellular activity to the point where it tries to escape being eaten.

[runner pat]

Casa marzu. While the cheese is not alive, the maggots are.

[kayaker]

I have heard about sushi sliced table-side from a live fish. I heard this from a credible source, but does anyone know if it is really true?

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by kayaker

I have heard about sushi sliced table-side from a live fish. I heard this from a credible source, but does anyone know if it is really true?

Davr Barry wrote about it in his book Dave Barry Does Japan, but I'm pretty sure he didn't try it. I doubt if he actually saw it.


This page claims it's for real:

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/picko...hi_living.html

[CalMeacham]

Ikizukuri


http://www.neatorama.com/2007/10/22/...cy-live-sushi/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikizukuri



Note, at the end of the latter, other references:

See also
Odori ebi, shrimp eaten alive in Japanese cuisine
Drunken shrimp, shrimp eaten alive in Chinese cuisine
Sannakji, octopus eaten alive in Korean cuisine
Ying Yang fish, partially deep-fried fish eaten alive in mainland China and Taiwanese cuisine

Partially deep-fried fish eaten alive. This has to win some sort of award for Cruelest Possible Food. It's on a par with Hannibal Lector's eating Ray Liotta's parts.

[kayaker]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Davr Barry wrote about it in his book Dave Barry Does Japan, but I'm pretty sure he didn't try it. I doubt if he actually saw it.


This page claims it's for real:

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/picko...hi_living.html

Wow, thanks. My brother was my source. He ws correct, it seems.

Pesonally, I've broiled lobster that moved for the initial cooking period. The lobster is clevered in half sagittaly, then placed (cut surface facing the flame) under the broiler. The lobster has to be watched and repositioned initially as it squirms for a bit.

[Rubixcube]

Originally Posted by kayaker

I have heard about sushi sliced table-side from a live fish. I heard this from a credible source, but does anyone know if it is really true?

It's true, it's called Ikizukuri. The fished is sliced on the table and continues to move as the diners eat. Supposedly there's a similar practice in China done with donkeys called huo jia lu. Where the donkey is secured and sliced while alive and screaming and then immediately served raw. I say supposedly since the earliest link I can find is to Cracked and they don't link to anything really reputable in that article. Still I wouldn't consider these to be "eaten live and moving" since the flesh is separated from the animal, cruel yes but technically alive for the eater.

ETA: Ninja'd

[CalMeacham]

Here are videos of these foods, including Yin-Yang Fish!!


http://holidays--travel.com/2011/01/...ing-yang-fish/



This seems unbelievably nasty to me -- "not only are we going to serve this fish to you alive, but first we're gonna deep fry it! And not kill it!"


Goes way beyond "the fish can't even feel the hook in its mouth!"

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by Rubixcube

It's true, it's called Ikizukuri. The fished is sliced on the table and continues to move as the diners eat. Supposedly there's a similar practice in China done with donkeys called huo jia lu. Where the donkey is secured and sliced while alive and screaming and then immediately served raw. I say supposedly since the earliest link I can find is to Cracked and they don't link to anything really reputable in that article. Still I wouldn't consider these to be "eaten live and moving" since the flesh is separated from the animal, cruel yes but technically alive for the eater.

ETA: Ninja'd

I tried looking up the Live Donkey Sushi, but couldn't find anything under the Chinese name you give. The other links are the Cracked link and other links I don't find fully trustworthy.

Mind, I'm not saying people wouldn't do this. I just can't find a reliable link.


http://ramblelust.wordpress.com/2011...a-live-donkey/

Cracked link:

http://www.cracked.com/article_16951...und-world.html

[CalMeacham]

Interesting question, given this thread's topic:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...6062618AATfcIY

[CalMeacham]

Ahh, here's a referenc on the donkey sushi, along with a bit about eating live mice:

http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2...19/cu18-1.html

[Rubixcube]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

I tried looking up the Live Donkey Sushi, but couldn't find anything under the Chinese name you give. The other links are the Cracked link and other links I don't find fully trustworthy.

Mind, I'm not saying people wouldn't do this. I just can't find a reliable link.


http://ramblelust.wordpress.com/2011...a-live-donkey/

Cracked link:

http://www.cracked.com/article_16951...und-world.html

Yep that's why I included the disclaimer. It's something that I wouldn't be surprised if true, but with all the "cruel cuisine" urban legends that go around about Asia and China specifically it's impossible to tell. I've been searching around Snopes for something but without luck.

ETA:

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Ahh, here's a referenc on the donkey sushi, along with a bit about eating live mice:

http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2...19/cu18-1.html

That's the link from Cracked, I didn't notice that it's a newspaper until now. *sigh* I was hoping this one wasn't true since it's so goddamn cruel.

[Bakhesh]

I once went to a festival in the South of France with a bunch of friends, and we went to a very busy seafood restaurant. Everyone was ordering these seafood platters, which consisted of two large flat bowls, containing Oysters, Clams and various other molluscs.

It basically looked like it had all just been scooped out of a rock pool. Everything was completely raw, and much of it looked like it was still alive (not always easy to tell with shellfish). Halfway through the meal, a clam shell opened up, and a baby crab came out and walked off the plate.

Still ate it all though. When in Rome, and all that. It wasn't completely disgusting, but at the same time, I've not really gone out of my way to recreate the experiece.

[elbows]

What? No one mentioning the live monkey brains?

Monkey secured in special table with cranium poking through centre, top of skull removed, brains eaten while monkey still alive!

Very expensive meal, served only in Hong Kong. The monkey brains reportedly have magical powers to revitalize, blah, blah, same old story.

Have never seen it. Have heard of it, and met people who swear they witnessed it.

I still think it's more myth than reality.

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by elbows

What? No one mentioning the live monkey brains?

Monkey secured in special table with cranium poking through centre, top of skull removed, brains eaten while monkey still alive!

Very expensive meal, served only in Hong Kong. The monkey brains reportedly have magical powers to revitalize, blah, blah, same old story.

Have never seen it. Have heard of it, and met people who swear they witnessed it.

I still think it's more myth than reality.

Ahhh! Doctor Jones! Fresh monkey brains!


I note that in Indians Jones and the Temple of Doom the monkey heads are severed, and thus not alive.

I've heard of the live monkey brains, thing, too, although I haven't met anyone who said they saw it. Thomas Berger includes the story as a throwaway in his book Arthur Rex. I've extremely skeptical myself. But the mere fact that the legend exists can, I suspect, tempt someone into trying it.

Can you get Mad Monkey Disease or some kind of kuru from eating uncooked monkey brains?

[Skammer]

I've been to fraternity parties where small live goldfish were provided and swallowed whole by adventurous partygoers.

[Curiosity Kills Her]

Originally Posted by elbows

What? No one mentioning the live monkey brains?

Monkey secured in special table with cranium poking through centre, top of skull removed, brains eaten while monkey still alive!

Very expensive meal, served only in Hong Kong. The monkey brains reportedly have magical powers to revitalize, blah, blah, same old story.

Have never seen it. Have heard of it, and met people who swear they witnessed it.

I still think it's more myth than reality.

I saw it on one of the Faces of Death movies back when I was a teenager. No idea if it was legit.

[Rubixcube]

Originally Posted by Curiosity Kills Her

I saw it on one of the Faces of Death movies back when I was a teenager. No idea if it was legit.

The actual Faces of Death scene is fake. It is as far as I can tell the only animal scene in that movie that is faked.

[sachertorte]

On one of the Amazing Race episodes from ages ago, the teams had to eat live baby octopus (already mentioned above), so if you search old episodes of The Amazing Race in Korea you could find video evidence of what you are looking for. This would have been around 2002-ish.

The day after the episode aired, I mentioned it to a labmate of mine who is from Korea. He said live baby octopus is really good. I told him that they complained about the octopus suckers sticking to the insides of their mouths making it very hard to eat. He said, they should have dipped the octopus in the sesame oil provided with the octopus to keep the suckers from sticking.

[tdn]

This thread is full of eww.

But I came in to mention grubs. They are a staple in some parts of the world.

[Bakhesh]

Originally Posted by tdn

This thread is full of eww.

But I came in to mention grubs. They are a staple in some parts of the world.

Really? They would be rubbish at holding paper together

[tdn]

Originally Posted by Bakhesh

Really? They would be rubbish at holding paper together

You need a special grub gun.

[CalMeacham]

It's not people food AFAIK, but people who study apes have observed that the "termire fisdhing' that chimps do produces a handful of live termites (scraped off between thumb and forefinger as you draw the "stick" through your fingers) that are thrown into the mouth and "chewed furiously". If they don't chew furiously, the still-living termite soldiers will bite the tongue and hang on.




THAT would add spice to a meal.

[elbows]

20yrs ago, when I was in SE Asia, there was an article in a local paper about a raid in Hong Kong of a Monkey Brain dinner. People had paid $10,000 each to attend, etc. People would be charged!

Also, I once met a man who insisted he had partaken of such a thing himself. He was Chinese, and old, this was in Singapore, many years ago.

Neither are evidence of anything, I assure you. The paper just likes juicy scandalous stories, and even with pictures, hardly proof. And the old Chinese man was probably just stringing me along to see if I'd believe him. When I asked my Chinese friend she said, she wasn't certain herself if it wasn't once served, eons ago to some stupid emperor, and that it's been nothing but myth ever since!

[Quartz]

Originally Posted by Jim B.

I know oysters on the half shell are often split in half, and thus killed just before they're eaten.

Actually no. Oysters should be very much alive when you eat them. That's why you have the lemon. You touch the lemon to the oyster and it should recoil from the lemon. If it doesn't, don't eat it!

[cher3]

One of the better sushi places here serves some kind of large shrimp on their deluxe sashimi that is still waving its antennae when it gets to the table. Since it has been bisected at that point, I'm not sure it counts as being alive, though. I have never ordered it personally and have seen more than one startled customer send it back to be cooked.

[Mooch]

Originally Posted by Quartz

Actually no. Oysters should be very much alive when you eat them. That's why you have the lemon. You touch the lemon to the oyster and it should recoil from the lemon. If it doesn't, don't eat it!

I eat a lot of raw live oysters and have never witnessed them recoil from lemon. Although I mostly eat them unadorned or occasionally a bit of mignonette sauce.

I have eaten many live cicadas when they all came out a few years back. They were definitely moving.

[MPB in Salt Lake]

Many years ago, Cecil dedicated an entire Straight Dope column on the monkey brains urban legend, and if I recall correctly, he never found any credible evidence that people actually ate live monkeys, it was apparently just too good of a story to die off....

[tellyworth]

Witchetty grubs are sometimes eaten raw (though I don't know how common that really is/was).

[sahirrnee]

Sawagani crab.
It could kill you.

[jovan]

Ikizukuri has been mentioned (apparently, I've been living here too long, it wouldn't have occurred to me that someone might think it's an urban legend). Another delicacy from Japan, that I haven't yet had the opportunity to sample, is shirouo-no-odori-gui. It's tiny translucent fish, ice gobies, that are eaten alive and unprepared. The odori in odori-gui means "dance" because the food dances in your mouth.

[Scribble]

Live waxworms are pretty good, believe it or not.

They're also good cooked. They taste like slightly almond-flavored shrimp.

[Omar Little]

I've eaten live termites while in the rain forests of central america. Tasted like mint, based upon the tree they were living in and dining upon.

[Sam A. Robrin]

I'm reminded of the joke about the little hayseed boy having dinner in the big city, who was brought a big bowl of quivering Jell-O. He took one look at it and said, "I cain't eat this, it ain't dead yet!"

[drewtwo99]

Originally Posted by Mooch

I eat a lot of raw live oysters and have never witnessed them recoil from lemon. Although I mostly eat them unadorned or occasionally a bit of mignonette sauce.

I have eaten many live cicadas when they all came out a few years back. They were definitely moving.

You ate live... cicadas...??????????? Were they making that annoying sound they always make?

I can't imagine a worse meal. Offensive to the eyes, ears, and probably tongue.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Originally Posted by Quartz

Actually no. Oysters should be very much alive when you eat them. That's why you have the lemon. You touch the lemon to the oyster and it should recoil from the lemon. If it doesn't, don't eat it!

Okay, sorry for my dumb question (I've never had oysters before), but I thought you could bake oysters? Isn't that what oysters Rockefeller is? They don't survive the baking, do they?

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by Rollo Tomasi

Okay, sorry for my dumb question (I've never had oysters before), but I thought you could bake oysters? Isn't that what oysters Rockefeller is? They don't survive the baking, do they?

You can bake oysters, but that's not typically how they're served -- classic oysters are served on the half-shell, often nestled in ice. Oysters Rockefeller, I learn from William Poundstone, was a dish the New Orleans restaurant Antoine's came up with to "push" oysters, and it was a clever variation on the usual method. The Oysters were presented on a bed of rock salt, which looks like ice, and they were baked, rather than raw, with a green sauce already on them. It looked like the traditional serving, but it was actually a hot dish.


Disclaimer -- I've never eatyen oysters, either. I've watched people eat them, and I doubt if any of the ones I saw were looking to see if the oysters were still alive, recoiling in pain from the lemon juice. They were just scarfing them down.

[Floater]

Originally Posted by elbows

What? No one mentioning the live monkey brains?

<snip>

I still think it's more myth than reality.

A friend of mine claimed he had eaten it. He's dead now, so I can't ask him for details.

Originally Posted by Rollo Tomasi

Okay, sorry for my dumb question (I've never had oysters before), but I thought you could bake oysters? Isn't that what oysters Rockefeller is? They don't survive the baking, do they?

I ate oysters Rockefeller the other day. Baked with sauce Hollandaise and spinach (I think). Quite tasty anyway. They were, of course, preceded by raw oysters.

My mother once ate a live slug (with a slice of lemon) when on vacation in Italy. She said it wiggled its way down the esophagus.

[yanceylebeef]

When I was stationed in Tokyo in the early 90s, I taught conversational English for a local academy. When my tour ended, my students took me out for Ikizukuri the night before I left. Delicious, and a little freaky with the fish still moving on the plate.

I also had calamari in Siracusa Sicily that had been flash fried so fast the tentacles were still moving, but that might have just been reflexes. Again, delicious, but a bit uncomfortable to have the tentacles try to wrap around your tongue.

[CalMeacham]

Originally Posted by Floater

A friend of mine claimed he had eaten it. He's dead now, so I can't ask him for details.

I ate oysters Rockefeller the other day. Baked with sauce Hollandaise and spinach (I think). Quite tasty anyway. They were, of course, preceded by raw oysters.

My mother once ate a live slug (with a slice of lemon) when on vacation in Italy. She said it wiggled its way down the esophagus.

As William Pounstone points out in his book Big Secrets, Antoine's, where Oyster Rockefeller originated, claims to be the only source of the recipe, which is secret. Everybody else is guessing. The people who run Antoine's have explicitly stated that there's no spinach in the sauce (and the sauce isn't a Hollendaise).



Mind you, other places serving what they call "Oysters Rockefeller" can make any kind of sauce they want, and many of them use spinach to duplicate the color of Antoine's. Poundstone says that some even use ketchup in their sauce (which doesn't make it green). Poundstone doesn't know the recipe, either, for sure, but he did some interesting detective work to try to ferret it out, and I suspect he's pretty close. It's worth a read.

[misling]

My father ran a fishing charter boat (6-pack) in Alaska until his death last year.
He was considerably startled the first time he took out a set of Japanese businessmen. They came aboard with a cooler of beers, but no lunch. They caught a nice Salmon, and proceeded to slice it up (still alive and just off the hook) and eat it.
He told the story for the next several years.

[Lust4Life]

Originally Posted by elbows

What? No one mentioning the live monkey brains?

Monkey secured in special table with cranium poking through centre, top of skull removed, brains eaten while monkey still alive!

Very expensive meal, served only in Hong Kong. The monkey brains reportedly have magical powers to revitalize, blah, blah, same old story.

Have never seen it. Have heard of it, and met people who swear they witnessed it.

I still think it's more myth than reality.

I read somewhere (No cite I'm afraid) that the story was told as a practical joke by British Broadsheet Foreign Correspondants in Singapore to a newbie when he asked why there was a hole in the center of the table that they were sitting at.
(It was apparently for a shade)

That said,when discussing this with friends, one of whom is a Taiwanese with a Masters degree in Social Anthropology, she did not rule it out as being impossible.

[Rampant Coypu]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

You ate live... cicadas...??????????? Were they making that annoying sound they always make?

I can't imagine a worse meal. Offensive to the eyes, ears, and probably tongue.

The adult cicada climbs a few feet up a tree and pops out of it's shell. It then has to spend quite a while pumping up its wings and hardening its exoskeleton. I suspect this is when you harvest and eat them. They will be quite soft and unable to make noise. It's kinda like eating a soft shell crab.

At least that's my guess how to do it.

[Ike Witt]

Originally Posted by misling

My father ran a fishing charter boat (6-pack) in Alaska until his death last year.
He was considerably startled the first time he took out a set of Japanese businessmen. They came aboard with a cooler of beers, but no lunch. They caught a nice Salmon, and proceeded to slice it up (still alive and just off the hook) and eat it.
He told the story for the next several years.

Taking a love of fresh sushi to the nth degree.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Mooch

I have eaten many live cicadas when they all came out a few years back. They were definitely moving.

I'd like to hear more about this.

[John Mace]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Ikizukuri


http://www.neatorama.com/2007/10/22/...cy-live-sushi/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikizukuri



Note, at the end of the latter, other references:



Partially deep-fried fish eaten alive. This has to win some sort of award for Cruelest Possible Food. It's on a par with Hannibal Lector's eating Ray Liotta's parts.

I've had live shrimp in Japan. It's a little unnerving at first, but then you figure if you're going to eat it raw anyway, it might as well be fresher than fresh!