# Food Eaten Alive and Moving? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2012, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015 "2012-08-29T07:15:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Curiosity\_Kills\_Her](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Curiosity\_Kills\_Her](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curiosity_Kills_Her)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/21 "2012-08-29T13:21:43Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Rubixcube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Rubixcube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubixcube)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/22 "2012-08-29T13:25:31Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/23 "2012-08-29T13:31:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/24 "2012-08-29T14:06:45Z")
This thread is full of eww. But I came in to mention grubs. They are a staple in some parts of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/25 "2012-08-29T14:07:49Z")
> [@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 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/26 "2012-08-29T14:22:50Z")
> [@Bakhesh](#): > > Really? They would be rubbish at holding paper together You need a special grub gun. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/27 "2012-08-29T14:41:04Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/28 "2012-08-29T15:09:16Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/29 "2012-08-29T15:48:14Z")
> [@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! ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/30 "2012-08-29T16:21:35Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Mooch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mooch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mooch)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/31 "2012-08-29T16:48:03Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/32 "2012-08-29T18:20:47Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/33 "2012-08-29T22:07:23Z")
Witchetty grubs are sometimes eaten raw (though I don’t know how common that really is/was). ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/34 "2012-08-29T22:59:05Z")
Sawagani crab. It could kill you. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/35 "2012-08-30T08:15:46Z")
_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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_goby), that are eaten alive and unprepared. The _odori_ in _odori-gui_ means “dance” because the food dances in your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/36 "2012-08-30T10:55:28Z")
Live [waxworms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waxworms) are pretty good, believe it or not. They’re also good cooked. They taste like slightly almond-flavored shrimp. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/37 "2012-08-30T14:59:49Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/38 "2012-08-30T20:39:48Z")
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!” ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/39 "2012-08-30T22:49:59Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015/40 "2012-08-30T22:55:06Z")
> [@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? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-eaten-alive-and-moving/633015.md?page=3)