# Eating live fish
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 30, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063 "2010-01-30T22:56:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/1 "2010-01-30T22:56:19Z")
I recall Walter Cronkite relating a story that may have happened in the '70s, where he and his wife were guests of honour at a dinner in China. His wife was served a fish in a nice brown sauce. The trouble was, it was still breathing; gasping for air and its gill slots opening and closing.
Recently I saw a video of some sort of cooking competition where the fish was served gasping; but I haven’t tried to find it again. (Not that it’s gross; just don’t feel like it right now.)
Are these fish prepared in any way? (‘Now fish, very soon you will meet your Maker…’) ISTR they are scaled (probably unpleasant for them). Are they gutted just before serving, so that they are still alive but not flopping off of the plate? What’s the actual procedure?
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### Author:  [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/2 "2010-01-30T23:23:00Z")
Wow that sounds interesting. A little cruel but probably delicious.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/3 "2010-01-30T23:27:03Z")
I found this [HuffPo article](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/17/eating-a-deep-fried-fish_n_360576.html), which has a video. Nothing in the way of explanation.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/4 "2010-01-30T23:28:27Z")
Sorry - I draw the line at food that’s still breathing/moving. Raw fish sashimi/sushi, sure, _live_ food - nuh-uh.
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### Author:  [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/5 "2010-01-31T00:02:02Z")
I’ve seen those videos before. ☹ I always like to brag to everyone that I love trying the weirdest foods and will try anything once but yeah, live food is where I would probably draw the line.
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### Author:  [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/6 "2010-01-31T00:49:25Z")
My understanding, albeit anecdotally, is that the fish is actually dead. The gasping motions are mostly residual nerve firing, since the cook doesn’t do anything to the head and gill areas of the fish - the dish is made by dunking the bottom of the fish in a deep fryer.
That being said, I still wouldn’t eat it. It may be dead but it’s still _creepy_. And I’m a pretty adventurous eater by nature.
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/7 "2010-01-31T01:06:41Z")
There are a number of videos of it on Youtube: [http://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=eating+live+fish&search\_type=&aq=f](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eating+live+fish&search_type=&aq=f)
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/8 "2010-01-31T01:54:08Z")
Do not want.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/9 "2010-01-31T02:22:41Z")
> [@thirdname](#):
>
> There are a number of videos of it on Youtube: [http://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=eating+live+fish&search\_type=&aq=f](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eating+live+fish&search_type=&aq=f)
I saw the one I remember seeing. Looks like they scale it, then dip it in hot oil. I didn’t see the typical gut-cut, but it looks like the innards may gave been removed through the lateral slice at the ‘throat’.
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### Author:  [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/10 "2010-01-31T03:00:06Z")
Well, I think you have found my culinary bounday. Although, Raw Oysters might still be twitching… guess I might eat live Urchin, Oyster, Scallop, or Clam… possibley shrimp, lobster or langostine “writhing sushi”. Would most pointedly dispatch any fish I might eat. The live baby octopi that they eat in Korea are not for me.
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/11 "2010-01-31T03:06:41Z")
If you want even more extreme, there’s sushi where [you can watch the fish swimming in front of you as you eat it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W__jD48kkzY)
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### Author:  [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/12 "2010-01-31T03:23:00Z")
> [@Tanbarkie](#):
>
> My understanding, albeit anecdotally, is that the fish is actually dead. The gasping motions are mostly residual nerve firing, since the cook doesn’t do anything to the head and gill areas of the fish - the dish is made by dunking the bottom of the fish in a deep fryer.
That sounds a lot more like _dying_ than dead to me.
I wouldn’t eat it, and don’t know that I’d remain friends with anyone that would. It just seems pointlessly sadistic.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/13 "2010-01-31T03:24:28Z")
> [@Grumman](#):
>
> It just seems pointlessly sadistic.
That’s the point.
😃
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### Author:  [@MwNNrules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MwNNrules)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/14 "2010-01-31T05:11:29Z")
Anybody here heard of Oldboy?
Apparently several live octopi were consumed during the making of the film.
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### Author:  [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/15 "2010-01-31T05:24:06Z")
Wasn’t there some trend in the seventies where people were eating live goldfish. I could swear I remember Richard Simmons eating one.
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### Author:  [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/16 "2010-01-31T05:35:23Z")
70;s? it’s still going on at frats across the country. they’re bitter.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/17 "2010-01-31T05:57:11Z")
This is pretty disgusting, but is there evidence of eating the brains of live monkeys?
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/18 "2010-01-31T06:03:23Z")
The French have a similar [recipe](http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/572120).
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### Author:  [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/19 "2010-01-31T06:13:20Z")
> [@devilsknew](#):
>
> The live baby octopi that they eat in Korea are not for me.
However, I have eaten a salad of boiled and traditionally Japanese marinated baby octopi with seaweed… very good- I like their tentacles better than their globulous and cartilagenous heads… some strange texturous eatings, there.. I know they were fresh, but at least dead at inception and preperation.
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### Author:  [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2010, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-live-fish/527063/20 "2010-01-31T06:20:46Z")
Is Octopus and Squid Kosher…?
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