onobond

Stumbled upon this food article:

http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/8-anim...232347504.html

Have you eaten any of these?

Who will be the first FTer to report having savoured all eight examples in the slideshow?

BuildingMyBento

At the primary Catania fish market, I inquired about the cost of shrimp at a random fishmonger's stall. He started peeling - cigarette-residue hands and all - and told me to sample one. Can't say my stomach was too thrilled immediately afterwards, but the taste was very sweet.

GadgetFreak

I've had the "breathing fish" in Japan a few times. Typically aji tatami if I recall correctly. Also the shrimp that is alive, then the chef twists the head off, slits the main vein out in one swipe of the knife and puts in on the plate in front of you.

BuildingMyBento

Heh, tatami are the mats found in traditional Japanese homes and inns. Tataki's the word you want.

GadgetFreak

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_6 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11B651 Safari/9537.53)

Duh. Thanks.

uk1

I have always been obsessed with fresh fish. When I say fresh fish I mean I yearn for those places where you can eat fish that has really just got off the boat. That's difficult in the UK and as an island nation I have always been dissapointed in the variable quality of fish bought at the fishmongers or fresh fish coiunters at supermarkets. The smell is always the first give-away.

I've been buying fish from a dealer who sends fish and seafood overnight from Cornwall in boxes full of ice. On my last I ordered some frozen seabass to last me between orders and when I defrosted it I was suprised at how not only could you not tell that it had been frozen it tasted sweeter and fresher than anything I'd tasted fresh. Bit of a shock. A few days ago I bought some frozen oven-bake haddock in batter from my supermarket and it tasted so sweet and fresh. It was better than we get in fish and chip shops. And it was much cheaper than fresh fish.

Last week, by coincidence they had an item on UK TV about the tests that a specialist laboratory does to establish how fresh fish was on a 10 point scale ... two of the tests being taste and smell apart from lab analysis. The interesting thing was that the scientist running the lab when asked admitted that he always buys frozen fish rather than "fresh" because he believes it always tastes sweeter and fresher and you cannot detect the difference unless it has been burned. He never eats frsh fish. All the lab tests also showed that the frozen was "fresher" than fresh.

I am now fully converted to frozen fish in the UK except the odd trout farm trout - because it's fresher.

Jenbel

most of those are just too hideously cruel to contemplate

I've turned down the octopus - it came to the table still wriggling. Since octopus has a very well developed central nervous system, I'm not going to eat something that has deliberately inflicted so much pain for my 'enjoyment' - I'd be sick.

gmitchs

I tried a piece of cheek meat from a halibut just brought aboard a charter boat. One of the fishermen was from Korea and claimed there was nothing better and proceeded to remove the meat while the fish was still alive. It was ok. Too bad it wasn't a Yellowtail. That would have been good.

ariel81

It is disgusting and cruel,and morally sick to taunt the live fish with his own flesh,at least,kill the poor creature first.

braslvr

After I mentioned that I like octopus sushi (tako) to my Japanese hosts, I was treated to a slice taken from a live octopus. Still moving and secured to the rice with a band of nori. No need to do it again. Dead tako is fine.

uszkanni

The only animal I've eaten alive and "kicking" are oysters, but I've had some killed while I watched. Fish mostly - stunned with a blow to the head followed by a quick evisceration - but also amaebi (sweet shrimp) and soft shelled crabs at sushi bars and the like.

No desire to keep the thing alive as I consume it piecemeal or to have it slowly cooked to death in front of me. If I'm going to eat it then I want its death to be as fast and as painless as possible. Just like my own, but without the necessity to involve hookers and blow.

Flubber2012

Ever see a cat kill a mouse or lizard?

This is nature's way.

tng11

I've sampled live shrimp and clams in Japan, where the live shrimp/clam is peeled/shucked in front and eaten directly or put on a bed of rice.The sweetness of the flesh was something to remember!

And it's true that frozen fish can sometimes be better than "fresh" fish as many of us may know it. The latter can sometimes have been sitting outside for a while at varying temperatures and handled poorly, whereas frozen fish, if flash frozen correctly can be better. I believe for instance, most, of not all premium-grade tuna consumed in Japan is frozen at sea to preserve the integrity of the flesh/taste before being delivered.

nkedel

Don't care for shellfish (speaking very broadly; anything without a backbone, really) whether cooked or raw; can't imagine I'd like them better live.

I have eaten fish I caught, cleaned and cooked, and I've eaten chicken after meeting the chicken while alive, but somebody else killed/cleaned/cooked it. Would love to try pig/cow/turkey prepared that fresh, but that's a long step from just cutting a steak off a live one.

beckoa

Have dug up my own razor clam before in Alaska and bit off a piece of its digger foot freshly washed off in the briny ocean. It was rather sweet.