Eating Food That's Still Alive

[B Edulis]

Most of this stuff really sounds like a frat boy approach to food -- a combination of sadism and "daring" with not too much regard for taste. I ate at a small sushi bar in Tokyo once that was considered one of the best by my host. When we sat down I notices a bunch of critters running and moving around inside the glass fish case. But the sushi master did them in before serving them. And the sushi was fantastic.

As to the idea that live food is by its nature fresher, Bittman points out in his fish book that a lobster that's been kept in captivity too long is no good, even if alive.  I've seen live fish in Chinatown aquariums that have eyes as foggy 3 day old dead fish (that really creeped me out! Living dead.....).

[Liza]

...and do you remember the last gasp we witnessed? Maria and I were in Chinatown and looking at a supposedly-dead fish, when it suddenly gave a gasp and jerked most...jerkedly.

[cabrales]

Most of this stuff really sounds like a frat boy approach to food -- a combination of sadism and "daring" with not too much regard for taste.

Maria -- I would readily take in the above live items (including a small piece of octupus), except for the rats and the monkey's brain. While for some diners there may be a "frat boy"-type mentality, for me the desire to take in flesh from a live item reflects the thrill in my mind of the proximity of the connection between the eaten and the diner. It's not necessarily a desire to inflict pain or injure the eaten item, but more a sense of rendering more direct and visible that which lies behind our every meal involving, among other things, seafood or meat.   Also, I suppose, a curiosity, not dissimilar to my curiosity aobut ortolans and fugu.

[Jinmyo]

Cough.

[Liza]

In my best baritone, "Don't worry, Jinmyo, I'll protect you!"

[Priscilla]

Cabrales, I have eaten the very-nearly-live octopus in South Korea mentioned in the article you provided.  It was slices of a tentacle, rather than a whole small beast, part of a range of right-outta-the-tank sashimi.

I remember our hosts advising thorough and quick chewage, lest the suction cups adhere to one's esophagus.  It was very chewy, chewier even than the cooked octopus one commonly finds at sushi bars.  (I very much prefer crunchy toothsome giant clam, anyway.)  Part of the ritual was to shock the slices of with soy and wasabi and watch the contractions of the suction cups!

At that meal we also ate something called "blood clam," a small clam whose natural juices there in the half-shell looked like, yes, blood.  The clams were very nice.  During the meal one of our hosts regaled us with a story of how a bad haul of this same clam had recently killed a bunch of crew members of a fishing boat.

I have been very interested in fugu over the years, conceptually, intellectually, cuisinarily, but reports that it is bland and uneventful lessen its allure.  However, given the opportunity from a seemingly trustworthy source I would certainly partake.

But not monkey brains.  No appeal there at all, for me.

Priscilla

[cabrales]

Cabrales, I have eaten the very-nearly-live octopus in South Korea mentioned in the article you provided.  It was slices of a tentacle, rather than a whole small beast, part of a range of right-outta-the-tank sashimi.

I remember our hosts advising thorough and quick chewage, lest the suction cups adhere to one's esophagus. . . . Part of the ritual was to shock the slices of with soy and wasabi and watch the contractions of the suction cups!

Priscilla -- When you have a chance, please consider further describing the octupus "encounter". How were the tentacles removed from the octupus (e.g., was the octupus alive when that happened, did it react, how large was the overall octupus, etc.)? Also, were the tentacles twitching when presented to you, and, if so, more out of being "alive" or out of reaction to the soy/wasabi? Did the suction cups adhere a bit to parts of your mouth?  

[Priscilla]

Cabrales, the octopus was not dismembered before our eyes.  It is possible because we were sitting at a table rather than at a bar overlooking a preparation area we missed this step, but it seems to me the small place was all tanks and tables, and watching the prep was not a feature of the experience.  I could be misremembering, and it certainly could differ among establishments.

The tentacle slices were maybe domino-sized, from, I would guess, a medium-sized octopus, judging from others I have seen at fish markets and sushi bars and aquariums.  The tentacle slices were moving a little bit, on their own, (VERY slightly) when served, something pointed out for appreciation, but the suction cups contracted under application of soy and wasabi, (and I assume it was more the wasabi and less the soy causing the reaction).

I don't think there was any adherence during eating, but too I did follow the instruction on quickness and thoroughness, especially after a politely graphic description of what might befall those who do NOT chew quickly and thoroughly.

Priscilla

[cabrales]

Russ -- I posed the monkey brains question to A Bourdain in the current Q&A session and received the following response:

I was dubious about the legendary Live Monkey Brain. Did it exist prior to Faces of Death..and later Indiana Jones? Was it a jungle version of the urban legend? Did enterprising cooks in the Golden Triangle and elsewhere create the "dish" in response to inquiries from credulous backpackers and toursists? Is it food? Or some creepy male-bonding "medicinal" thing (meaning alternative Viagra)? Sad to say. it does exist--and has for some time, I am authoratatively assured as recently as two days ago in Singapore--at a Chinese "herbal" restaurant (specializing in turtle fat, scorpions, and curative food) and previously in Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere. No WAY am I gonna eat that. That's where I draw the line. First,  have no expectation that such a thing could possibly taste good. Second, however hypocritical or squeamish of me--I simply cannot abide a hurt monkey's face, its screams of pain in the name of food or novelty or experience. Had a humble rice farmer come at me a with a steaming plate of puppy heads, or cat-kebabs--as might well have happened-- the choice between overcoming my Western, pet-owning, pet loving reticence and horror and offending my host would be a very, very difficult one. I'd probably choke down a few bites--as I like to be a good guest--but I wouldn't like doing it--even if tasty. I sure as hell wouldn't order any in a restaurant. I am very glad the circumstance has not arisen--and I went out of my way to not find myself in a position where either cat or dog would be offered. (though I saw caged dogs in Can Tho at a kill-to-order restaurant.) Hypocritical? Yes. No way on monkey brain.. I tend to lose my appetite around torture.

[cabrales]

In reviewing Bourdain's response, I thought about whether I would take in the live monkey brains if the opportunity presented itself. Sadly, I have to admit I would not be deterred by potential pain for the monkey affected, but would be more worried about whether the monkey brain carried diseases that could be transferred over.  :confused:

With seafood, I tend to worry less (unjustifiably) about getting ill from eating those items alive. I have thought about taking flesh from a live salmon caught on an Alaskan cruise day excursion (not yet pursued). More easily implemented would be my buying a large geoduck clam from Chinatown and taking meat from its "trunk" while it was still alive. I believe this to be possible because a geoduck clam is very large (see the Pacific Northwest forum for background), and may sustain an initial knife cut. Also, the "trunk" of the clam is long and amenable to that type of cut.  I would prepare some soy and wasabi for sashimi style eating, and also a little pot of bouillon for quick immersion and eating. (Apologies if members find this plan unappealing. I will implement it sometime this year and report back)  

[Jinmyo]

[cabrales]

[Sandra Levine]

:wow:

[russ parsons]

can geoducks be eaten raw? i mean totally raw? everytime i've done anything with them, i blanched them in boiling water to remove the outer "skin". i realize this is getting rather talmudic, but would that still be raw?

[col klink]

Good question, whenever I've had geoduck at sushi restaurants, I've just assumed they were raw, likewise octopus.

[cabrales]

The "trunk" part of the geoduck at least does have skin. I have eaten geoduck at certain sushi places. However, I wonder whether the skin has been removed (probably) and which part of the geoduck (i.e., the portion inside the shell or from the trunk) the sashimi-quality flesh was from.  

Also, do members have input on the extent to which geoduck can be cleaned while they are alive (and how)?   Geoduck seem to live at least at times in sand near water (according to the Pacific Northwest forum), and I have seen live geoduck (temporarily at least) in bins devoid of water in Chinatown. Would one keep the geoduck in water while its trunk were being -- err -- "trimmed"?  

[Sandra Levine]

I hope PETA doesn't see this thread. :wow:

[Priscilla]

Well, I've got some new questions for Ken the Sushi Chef, haven't I?

I assumed the giant clam I like to eat was raw, but it could have been blanched for skin removal, I suppose.

Was it in Helen Evans Brown's The West Coast Cook Book where I read that female Oregon settlers did not gather geoducks due to their indelicate visual associations?  Have to check.

Priscilla

[g.johnson]

Sadly, I have to admit I would not be deterred by potential pain for the monkey affected, but would be more worried about whether the monkey brain carried diseases that could be transferred over.  :confused:

Extracting spoonfuls of brain from a living monkey should not cause pain since there are no appropriate nerve endings within the brain. (Neurosurgery is often performed on patients who are awake since it is desirable to receive feedback when cutting into areas that might affect speech, movement, etc.) Removing the scalp and cranial cap, on the other hand…

[cabrales]

I think Morimoto does odori (dancing shrimp) at his new restaurant. There's a similiar Thai dish called gkoong dten or something like that. In neither case are they set on fire as far as I know.

Below is a link to Morimoto's dinner menu. Note the various "inspirations"/use of ingredients potentially derived from Nobu (including "black cod miso"), and the dish named "drunken shrimp 'yopparai'".  I wonder if that dish includes "live" shrimp (unlikely, no?).

http://www.morimotorestaurant.com/main.html

[Jinmyo]

cabrales, Morimoto looks like a lot prettier in the Flash introductory graphic than he used to. Perhaps I should think about wearing lipstick again.  

[Gavin Jones]

So it should be possible to trepan oneself, and snack on one's own brain? With sauce gribiche presumably.

One for the Dinner! thread.

[g.johnson]

Auto-trepanning.

[Jinmyo]

Sauce gribiche.

[cabrales]

A Taiwanese meal involving live newborn mice is described in the Spring 2002 edition of Gastronomica. In Andrew Chase's review of two books on unusual food, he notes one of his own expriences:

"I eat everything; I have a passionate curiosity to try any food that is new to me. Or so I thought. Sugar-cane fields are notorious breeding grounds for rates and snakes. Once , when I was helping a friend in Taitung (Taidong) County in southeastern Taiwan with his sugar-cane harvest, we came upon a rat nest. My companion collected the tiny *newborn* rats, bald and pink. He said they were for the Hakka [a linguistic/cultural subgroup] men in the village. . . . That evening we brought the rats to the Hakka gentlemen, who gratefully received them and broke out a bottle of distilled rice wine. Everybody was eager for me to try the delicacy. . . . To my surprise, the rats were served as is, squeaking and squirming on the plate, to be dunked in a little soy sauce with chopped chilies. The suckling rat wriggled between my chopsticks. It got as far as my mouth but no father: I couldn't eat it. . . ."