Live Sashimi
03/06/2008 @ 12:00 pm
A friend sent his photos of a sashimi meal in which the fish was still twitching while on the plate.
There is always this Youtube video.
I don’t think I could handle this. I understand when sushi chefs check to see if the muscles are still alive in abalone or scallops. I am not interested in watching a fish move as I eat its dismembered flesh.
Poor Mari….she’s my favorite. If I ever become a j-pop singer and part of the...
I had ‘dancing lobster’, live lobster sashimi, before. It was slightly off-putting in the beginning but delish in the end.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:13 pmGreat stuff, Marie!
I am so glad you posted that video clip. A while back I was talking to some visitors from the U.S. and told them about iki zukuri, and they absolutely refused to believe me.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:23 pmWell, there’s your video proof.
Not that you and I need to eat this stuff when I come visit you next month . . .
March 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pmNo worry, Marie.
Actually, this story also reminded me of something. . .
Years ago, Sylvester Stallone was the image guy for a major ham company in Japan. Once on a trip over here, some reporterette asked him, “Do you like raw fish?”
Sly look at her and said, “Uh, no. It’s like, you know, running out onto a field and biting a cow, you know?”
March 6th, 2008 at 3:27 pmLOL Ed, you’ve made me forget what I was going to write now!
March 6th, 2008 at 7:59 pmI hope not many foreigners believe this is the usual Japanese dish. Most Japanese have never eaten this Iki Zukuri or Odori Gui(very small fish swimming in cold soup). I don’t think I will ever eat them in my life.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pmOh my God. I found some Odori Gui(eating alive) in YouTube.
Octopus (South Korea)
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=dmGaHbhVPbI&feature=related
Fish
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=eN8xtKUpmuA&feature=related
Awabi
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb88RXPuBGE&feature=related
This is the one I described
March 7th, 2008 at 1:21 amhttp://pics.livedoor.com/u/hiphearts/2379624
Mitakunai!
March 7th, 2008 at 1:42 amI can’t eat any seafood. Any.
So it’s always fun to see the faces of the servers at Japanese restaurants when they offer shrimp dishes or vegetarian sushi… wrapped in seaweed. It always reminds me of the scene in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ when the party hosts assures the vegetarian guest that eating dish is OK because “it’s lamb!”
My policy: never eat anything that swims in its own toilet.
I can’t even watch the videos. I’m not a vegetarian but, personably, I can’t help thinking that eating seafood this way is unbarably cruel and I’m fine with that so no need to try to convince me otherwise… .
March 7th, 2008 at 2:52 amIt’s funny what people won’t eat, and for what reasons.
I remember attending a reception for the pro-am of a major Japanese professional golf tournament (CASIO World Open), where I was seated with Jim Furyk and his (now) wife, and Robert Gamez.
The event organizers were very careful to prepare a menu that did not contain any type of gaijin-off-putting fare, so I was surprised when Furyk and his wife said “no thanks” to some large prawns that had been breaded and fried whole.
When I asked them why, they told me they refused to eat anything that was looking at them as they ate it.
I told them that is why it is called seafood (see-food).
They rolled their eyes but Gamez got a good laugh out of it. I became a big fan of Gamez then and there.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:10 amI’ve been trying to locate a photo I know I took in a sushi restaurant where the chef kept referring to a particular dish as “henna.” I sometimes don’t trust what I hear, but I finally decided that he really was calling something “hen” (bad, weird, gross, etc). So I asked him what he was talking about. He blushed, and then told me that when he’d opened his restaurant (in America), gaijin kept asking for some kind of shrimp roll that he thought sounded gross. So he would privately refer to it as that “henna” thing that gaijin wanted. The name stuck and it is an inside joke. Obviously, unless you speak Japanese you would miss the whole thing.
Language is powerful. This is the same chef who will always tell me–without making eye contact–what I should or should not eat that day (ie what is freshest). He tells me in Japanese.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:21 amReally, Americans are a bit nutty when it comes to food.
Ed, your story reminded me of my waiter days. Whenever I wanted to discourage someone from ordering fish, I would say “It has bones in it.” It was fool proof. And, of course, a fish with a head is always staring at them.
That’s why swordfish steaks are so popular, they only vaguely taste like fish, and they look like a steak.
My favorite was a woman who was appalled that I brought out a live lobster to show off before cooking it. She curled her face in disgust, and said that was a cruel and insensitive thing to do.
So she passed on the lobster (our specialty), and ordered veal instead!
My theory is that processed foods have effectively shielded people from the food chain. Not healthy at all.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:31 am[...] Squirm for me. [...]
March 8th, 2008 at 1:48 amHonestly, everybody who thinks any method of preparing meat is cruel seems to forget that it’s generally the same thing in nature. I’m pretty sure it sucks just as bad when a bear swipes you from a river and starts chowing down.
It’s FOOD. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. THERE IS NOTHING INSENSITIVE ABOUT IT.
March 7th, 2009 at 7:46 amBut some Americans can eat Rocky Mountain oysters LOL!!!
March 14th, 2009 at 8:05 am