Frying live fish?

Cafe Society
1

From Aesop’s fables:

*A Cook was frying a Dish of Live Fish, and so soon as ever they felt the Heat of the Pan, There’s no enduring of This, cry’d one, and so they all leapt into the Fire; and instead of mending the Matter, they were worse now than before. The Remedy is many times worse than the Disease.

  • – Sir Roger L’Estrange (17c).
    So question: does anyone actually fry live fish? (Wow that is harsh if they do). Is that part of any cuisine? They couldn’t be scaled or taken out of the water for long, or they wouldn’t last long enough.

Also, does anyone still do that old Roman trick of taking a certain fish out of the water and putting it on the table, and watching it change colors as it suffocates due to lack of oxygen? (Then they cook it).

2

Why bother to fry it?

3

Well, they certainly boil live lobster.

4

Most crustaceans are cooked alive, as are most shellfish. In fact if mussels, oysters, clams etc aren’t alive just before you cook them, you shouldn’t eat them. Oysters are very often consumed still alive (but uncooked). For some reason I always thought they cooked whitebait alive, but I can’t find anything that says so.

5

I’d think it would be difficult to keep the breading on a live fish.

I have seen people filet live fish though. Said that fish don’t feel pain.

Must have been true as the fish didn’t scream even once. :stuck_out_tongue:

6

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