Perhaps the only thing that can repel a person from consuming lobsters is the realization of the fact of their preparation alive. Cooking the lobsters dead can be hazardous to health, as bacteria can spread in killed creatures instantly. Nevertheless, most cooks claim that the cooking method - boiling over low heat with a slow boiling point - does not bring pain to the lobsters. In this case, you have to leave everything to the culinary conscience.
It’s a completely different matter when the animal you eat is still conscious, and feels you bite off parts of its body. This article describes 10 dishes from animals eaten by people in a living form. Caution, some examples can hurt your psyche!
1
Sannacchi hwe
Sannakchi is a Korean dish known to the whole world for its many videos on the Internet that show its eating by people. The main ingredient in the treat is the dwarf nakchi octopus, garnished with sesame seeds. As a rule, only tentacles carved from a living octopus are served, but cases of feeding the whole animal are not uncommon.
The main minus of sannakchi in the continuous movement of the octopus tentacles. In the process of chewing, they describe eights, and the suction cups still "work", threatening to stick in the throat of the person eating them. There were even tragic cases of strangulation while eating this dish.
2
Sea urchins
In Italian, sea urchins sound like “ricci di mare” and are considered a delicacy. Many residents of the “boot” go to sea to catch hedgehogs, and then eat them alive. Caviar located inside the hedgehog is used as food. A special tool was invented for its extraction, although many cost with ordinary scissors. Caviar is eaten with a spoon or sucked out without using cutlery, but this method requires special skills, since the hedgehog's needles are unusually sharp and can injure you during the meal.
3
Odori abi
The sashimi variety Odori Ebi includes a shrimp cub with the shell removed and, in some cases, the head. The shell is fried among live shrimp. Given that the shrimp is still moving its antennae and paws, the shock of foodies first time tasting Odori Ebi is obvious. To facilitate the process of eating and sanitizing the dish, the shrimp is moistened in sake before use. Death occurs only during chewing. Such a delicacy is quite expensive, since the safe preparation of live shrimp can only be entrusted to experienced chefs who do everything quickly and correctly.
4
Chinese drunk shrimp
This dish may resemble the previous one, but still has some serious differences from Odori Ebi. The first is the place of preparation. If Odori Ebi is the fruit of Japanese cuisine, then drunk shrimp was invented in China and is not necessarily served live. But if they are alive, then they are necessarily poured with a Chinese alcoholic drink, the fortress of which reaches 60 degrees.
Serving sizes also differ, if the previous treat is more like an appetizer (eat no more than one shrimp), then drunk shrimp is the main dish containing about 10 adults. As you read, Odori Ebi feeds babies.
And most importantly: Chinese drunk shrimp are much “livelier” than Japanese Odori. They move actively, trying to slip out of the bowl, so you must be smart enough to quickly catch the victim and put it in your mouth. Chew carefully and quickly, otherwise the shrimp will continue to move already in the stomach. Charming, isn't it?
5
Ant salad
Elite Noma Restaurant was founded in the Danish metropolitan Copenhagen. Over time, its branches opened around the world, and it is rightfully one of the best institutions in the world. This is not surprising, because in few places the innovative ideas of chefs come to life so quickly, as in Denmark.
Unfortunately, one of the dishes includes live ants on lettuce. Nobody argues, ants are served frostbitten, which makes insects less active, but still, these are living ants creeping unceremoniously at your food. Food lovers claim their taste is similar to cymbopogon (lemon grass). The use of insects for food is common in the cuisines of many peoples of the world, but hardly anyone, except the Danes, is ready to request 300 dollars for a plate with ants.
If you decide to try a salad - pour melted sugar in the courtyard, it will be much cheaper.
And about the biggest ants of the world on our site TheBiggest.ru there is a very interesting article.
6
Kasu Marz
They say that life on the island leaves its mark. So the inhabitants of Sardinia reached the "pen", inventing cheese with larvae. It is called kasu marzu and is made on the basis of pecorino cheese, traditionally prepared from sheep's milk. The only “problem” for this type of cheese is the presence of larvae!
At a certain stage, the cheese goes through a fermentation stage, starting to literally decompose, which is accompanied by the appearance of larvae of cheese flies. They are necessary to speed up the process of degreasing cheese, giving the texture more softness. Eating cheese, the larvae secrete lagrim, the so-called tear. Some "weaklings" prefer to remove the larvae before the start of the meal, but if you decide to taste the kosa marzu with fatty additives, close your eyes. In an attempt to escape, the larvae can jump up to 15 centimeters.
7
Frog sashimi
The first video posted on the web with eating this dish caused a real flurry of emotions and comments. After such advertising, the dish began to be in demand in many sushi bars. For its preparation, cooks store a living frog in the kitchen. After ordering sashimi, they take it out and divide it so that the head remains untouched. The frog sirloin is served cold, the rest of the meat is used to make soup.
On the realization that the cook has prepared a frog that was alive a few minutes earlier, the nightmares do not end there. Shock and numbness causes a beating heart lying on a plate among frog meat. Whatever you say, there is something terrifying about this.
We could show you a video of cooking this dish, but it's too cruel. Those who are particularly interested can enter the query “Live Frog sashimi” into a YouTube search.
8
Ikizukuri
This dish is also a variety of sashimi, the name of which is translated from Japanese as "cooked alive." In any large fish restaurant, there is an aquarium not only with lobsters, but also with fish that you can choose for cooking. This fact alone is enough to scare away an impressionable visitor, but the process of making ikizukuri is worse than cooking lobsters.
After choosing a fish, the cook “parses” it and instantly sends it to the table. Cutting fish for Ikizukuri requires special skill and consists in separating small pieces of fish in a special way that allows the main part to remain untouched. The cook specially cuts off certain segments of the fish, allowing the client to observe the heartbeat of the “dish”. Also, in the process of absorption, the mouth of the fish opens. Sometimes, after watching a video with the absorption of Ikizukuri, it seems that vegetarians invented it to attract more people to their ranks.
9
Yin Yang Fish
Everyone understands the yin and yang doctrine in his own way. For example, Japanese cooks saw in it the ratio of dead and living fish. What else do you want to think about when you see Yin Yan Yu? In some ways, it is similar to Ikizukuri, but if the previous dish was served completely raw, then the yin yang fish is fried on all sides except the head. The exotic delicacy is seasoned with sweet and sour sauce, while the fish remains alive, as evidenced by the moving head. The roasting process is carried out with extreme care and takes a few seconds so as not to damage the internal organs of the fish. In some cases, food stays alive for 30 minutes. No one is interested in the popularity of yin yang more than the restaurants themselves, boasting the freshness of their products. Recently, this "masterpiece" has a lot of opponents, but, despite their performances, half-fried fish is in great demand in East Asia.
And about the largest fish in the world, we have an interesting article.
10
Oysters
The rating of “live” dishes closes with not such a terrifying product - oysters. Another reason for their presence on the list is the fact that many restaurant customers are not even aware that they eat oysters alive.
The reason why it is better to eat live oysters is their susceptibility to spoilage in a mortified state. They begin to deteriorate only if the body is opened from the sink. In the case of joining the carapace, oysters even live in a certain state for a certain time. This is the reason for their exhaustion from the shell. As you can see, nothing extreme, most likely, even those who did not know about the use of oysters in live form, again come to enjoy them, having not endured so much time.
Small bonus
For a long time we did not dare to include this dish on our list, but without it the article would not be complete.
Monkey brains
There are many videos and pictures on the Internet that say that in the countries of Southeast Asia, as well as in Indonesia and in some African countries, monkey brains are served as a delicacy. As you know, the brain of a monkey (as well as a human) does not have nerve endings, therefore the victim does not feel pain at all when people eat her brains.
According to many media reports, a live monkey is cut into a skull box, removed its upper part, exposing the brain. And people just eat the brains of a living monkey. Allegedly, this dish gives masculine strength to its eater.
But so far, in addition to a series of several photos of 1998 published by the Apple Daily in Hong Kong, the facts of the use of this dish in modern society have not been found. Probably in some regions of the world far from civilization, eating of living monkeys takes place, but, obviously, today this topic is too "hyped" by some media.