Eating out is becoming a blood sport.
According to recent news stories, food adventure clubs--whose members sample "gross-out" dishes such as sautà ©ed lamb's brains and duck embryos--are springing up across the country. During one recent outing at a Korean restaurant in New York, a group of gastro-warriors dined on freshly vivisected lobster and live octopus. The lobster's head watches as you consume the body, and the octopus writhes as a chef clips off his tentacles--which diners eat quickly while the limbs are still wriggling.
Apparently, it's not enough that we eat all manner of dead animals--now we have to eat live ones too. But consuming live animals doesn't just push the boundaries of good taste: It's animal abuse.
"Live seafood," which has been available in upscale sushi bars for some time, is increasingly finding its way onto the menus of more mainstream restaurants. Adventurous eaters might try live shrimp, "drunken prawns" (live prawns are plucked from a tank, doused in alcohol and set ablaze) or live flounder.
To prepare this last dish, chefs fillet the live fish down to the bone--leaving the head and tail intact--chop and season the raw flesh and return the meat to the fish's skeleton. The flounder is pinned down with wooden skewers to prevent the fish from jumping off your plate.
Sea animals are not merely swimming vegetables, and it's not OK to carve up their bodies as casually as one would a carrot or a rutabaga. Fish and octopuses are smart, have unique personalities--and are sensitive to pain.
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