6 Bizarre Foods that Involve Eating Live Animals

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Humans are known for their bizarre eating habits, as they are able to eat anything that is there in the food chain. Every day we explore new food sources and love to try anything. But the question is: how could someone dine on a table with an animal struggling for its life?

1) Casu Marzu (Italy)

One form of sheep’s milk cheese (Pecorino cheese) is full of crawling white worms. It is over-fermented – in a stage of decomposition – and is known as Casu Marzu. It is a traditional dish from Sardinia, Italy that is believed to increase sexual desire.

Casu Marzu is made when the cheese fly (Piophila casei) lays eggs (about 500 eggs at one time). When the eggs hatch, the maggots (larva of the fly) begin to eat through the cheese. The soft texture of the cheese is a result of the acid from these thousands of maggots’ digestive systems breaking down the cheese’s fats. But see for yourself.

The most important aspect of eating Casu Marzu is that it should be eaten when these wriggling maggots are alive, or else it is full of dead maggots and is considered to be unsafe. It is also advised to wear eye protection while eating as these maggots can jump as high as half a foot, straight into the eye. Also, not only could this food cause allergic reactions and intestinal larval infection, but it may also lead to vomiting, nausea and deadly diarrhea. Still, people risk their lives to eat it.

2) Drunken Shrimp (China)

[Via]

Listed as one of the top ten cruelest dishes in mainland China, “drunken shrimp” is still very popular. Known as a bachelor’s dream recipe, drunken shrimp is different type of fast food that can be prepared in just 30 seconds. Here’s how to do it:

Most often, the shrimps are eaten alive but sometimes they are first made to get drunk and then cooked in boiling water. Another recipe idea suggests that the shrimps should be marinated in Chinese white wine, known as Baijiu, after being boiled. Either way, eating such uncooked or semi-cooked shellfish could cause the serious food-borne parasitic infection Paragonimiasis. Still, it is considered as an incredibly tasty dish.

3) Ikizukuri (Japan)

[Via]

In Japan, order any living sea animal of your choice from the menu or just point in front of a tank full of fish, shrimp, squid, lobster, octopus or oyster. It will be served on your table within minutes, carved but still alive and with vital organs left intact. Ikizukuri means ‘prepared alive’ in Japanese and therefore freshness is the key for this Japanese food art – Shashimi – where live food is served in traditional decorative fashion.

Certainly, it’s a cruel practice and it needs a high level of skill to hit the fish on the head to stun and then fillet it. Fish Ikizukuri is often served garnished with lemon wedges, whereas small octopuses and squid are usually eaten whole, wrapped around a chopstick.

Odori ebi is a type of delicacy similar to shashimi in which baby shrimps, intoxicated by rice wine, are eaten alive while still jumping around and moving their legs. People who eat Ikizukuri claim it to be very tasty, but do you think this controversial method of food preparation should be continued?

4) Raw Oysters (worldwide)

[Via]

Listed as ‘best choice’ on the seafood watch list, oysters are significantly closer to plants than animals. Like Casu Marzu, oysters are also believed to increase sexual desire and must be alive just before consumption. An excellent source of minerals and vitamins, oysters are a very popular food, especially in coastal areas.

Oysters are often eaten raw on half the shell and are in high demand. But what if I tell you that they could cause a blood infection known as Vibrio vulnificus septicemia? In the U.S. alone, at least $120 million is invested every year on Vibrio vulnificus-caused illnesses or death. So for those who love to eat raw oysters, the best solution is to eat only post-harvest processed oysters.

Those who aren’t convinced can read more here. The source clearly says that 51% of people who get the Vibrio vulnificus infection will not survive. Also, 95% of deaths from seafood are caused by this bacterium. Best is to follow the slogan “boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it”.

5) Sannakji (Korea)

[Via]

Sannakji is a raw dish that consists of live and freshly chopped small octopuses, seasoned with sesame and sesame oil. It is famous in the Korean cuisine. But what if I advise you to chew your food properly and thoroughly, otherwise squiggly tentacles of freshly chopped octopus may get stuck in your throat and choke you to death?

Yes, it is true, because even after being served, the animal tries desperately to crawl away in an absolute revolting manner. But see for yourself:

Considered a delicacy, Sannakji is a sensational tourist attraction eaten mostly in Korea and other parts of Asia. Fresh octopus, killed by one swift blow to the head, is quite a tricky dish to eat. Each time you try to pick a piece, it will attempt to ‘go its own way’ and often refuse to let go of the chopsticks, as the octopi try to cling to each other. Still, Sannakji fans like to feel the wriggling, squirming, gloopy tentacles as they swallow it. How must it feel, tentacles attacking you from the inside of your stomach? Ewwww!!

6) Ying Yang Fish (China)

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Another shocking and disturbing food item comes from China, famously known as ‘dead-and-alive-fish’ or simply Ying Yang fish. This dish is made up of a fish that is fresh and moves its head while its body is deep fried and covered with sweet and sour sauce. When you try to pick up the fresh meat dish, you’ll find the fish’s mouth stirring and head still twitching.

Originally from Taiwan this dish is now widely criticized and forbidden worldwide there, but in China people love to eat it. I really do not understand how someone could eat a fish in pain, with its eyes staring at you, while you are about to swallow its meat. Isn’t that sick and monstrous?

(Source: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-7-bizzare-habits-eating-food-while-animal-still-alive)

Pickles: The Dog Who Won the World Cup

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Pickles: The Dog Who Won the World Cup

That is the title of a 2006 ITV drama written by Michael Chaplin. The story is about a mongrel dog, named Pickles who found the stolen Jules Rimet Trophy (aka. FIFA World Cup Trophy) in 1966. The drama is just a fiction though. Pickles was voiced by Harry Enfield

The story…

The trophy had been stolen during a rare public stamp exhibition at Westminster Central Hall, on the afternoon of Sunday 20 March, just four months before the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England was scheduled to kick-off. The thief ignored rare stamps with a value of £3 million to steal the trophy which was worth far less. Police received a £15,000 ransom demand. However, when they arrested the culprit, he turned out to be a hoaxer. The trophy was found just seven days later wrapped in newspaper at the bottom of a suburban garden hedge in Beulah Hill, South Norwood, South London, by Pickles while taking a walk with his owner David Corbett. When England won the trophy, as a reward, Pickles was invited to the celebration banquet and was allowed to lick his owner’s bowl. His owner collected a £6,000 reward (based on increases in average earnings, this would be approximately £170,000 in 2008). The thief was never caught.

Pickles died by choking on his own lead while chasing a cat in 1967.

Further reading

The curse of the cup (link).
The theft of the Jules Rimet Trophy (Link).

The Platypus: Nature’s “Swiss Army Knife”

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Be Different! and Stay Different – for 166 million years!
This weirdest mammal has webbed feet, lays eggs and sweats milk.

If you were to visit eastern Australia and/or Tasmania, you would find a rare and bizarre creature: the Platypus. From its birth, this little fella is entirely unique; the platypus is amongst the six extant species (1 Platypus and 5 Echidnas, more info)of monotremes – mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to young ones. Though a number of species have been found on the record (the fossil record!), the platypus is the only living member of its family, ornithorhynchidae, and genus, ornithorhynchus.

Photo manipulation [Via]; Original photo [Via]

[Via]

“The platypus is a very ancient offshoot of the mammal tree, so it was 166 million years ago that we last shared a common ancestor with platypuses… and that puts them somewhere between mammals and reptiles, because they still maintain quite a lot of reptilian characteristics that we’ve lost; for instance, they still lay eggs.”
-Comparative Genomics Group at the Australian National University, msnbc.com

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Half-Beaver, Half-Duck, Half-Otter, Half-… sorry, we’re out of “half”s

More bizarre than its pedigree, is the platty’s looks. This creature is like a lot of animals and tools wrapped all-in-one, in a furry (and waterproof) exterior:

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The platypus has a duckbill, a beaver tail and small otter feet. When on land, this little guy turns back the webs on its little otter front feet, revealing broad nails that help it walk. When in the water, a platypus swims forward with these same front feet. It uses its fat-filled tail as a rudder. The back feet of the platypus are used for it to brake and steer, like my first bike

[Via]

Fear the Platypus!

What’s more, the platypus is also highly venomous!. The male platypus can deliver a poison through a fancy spur on its back foot. Though the female is also born with the ankle-spur (a classy edition to any fall collection), she does not carry or spurt venom. The male’s highly potent venom is made from a cocktail of proteins, three of which are unique to the platypus. Don’t worry, ladies and gents: this venom won’t kill humans, though it is powerful enough to kill smaller animals – even dogs. Though we can breathe a sigh of relief that we’re safe from death, a platypus’ poison will be excruciating to endure, and can also leave a victim incapacitated.

[Via] and [Via]

Close your eyes, and navigate by electrolocation

Platypuses are also known for a curious affectation called electrolocation (More info). Monotremes are the only mammals that have this talent. Electorlocation is the ability to locate one’s prey using electric fields generated through muscular contractions. The platypus’ electroreception is the most sensitive of any monotreme. Why? Because it doesn’t use sight or smell to hunt. In fact, when the platypus swims, it closes its eyes, ears and nose:

Instead of using these seemingly crucial senses, a platypus will swim to the bottom of a stream, dig around up in there, and lets its electroreceptors do some super sweet shock therapy on the odd fly, shrimp, worm or insect larvae. Yum.

I am the Walru… er, Platypus

And don’t get me wrong; a platypus knows how to have a good time. It must eat at least one quarter of its body weight each day, which means twelvish hours of huntin’, eatin’ and electrolocatin.’ When they aren’t foraging, a platypus makes sweet sweet love in the water so that the female’s one functional ovary can make some babies. When the babies have hatched in the platypus’ burrow, the female oozes milk for the little hairless babies to lick off. Literally.

Platypus Nestling, Four Weeks [Via]

Though platypuses (or, is it platypi?) have few natural predators, their encounter with larger and faster carnivores (such as a wild cat, a crocodile, even a snake) probably won’t lead to a second date, but a funeral.

[Via]

And we want the platypus to live a long time – their life span in the wild is eleven years, while in captivity some have often lived to see their sweet sixteen. Though the platypus isn’t under immediate threat, let’s keep this fascinating little species alive and well – so we can marvel at its awesomeness for generations to come!

[Via]

(Source: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/12/platypus-natures-swiss-army-knife.html)

Please also read:

Platypus and Echidna Babies o.O, here

The Honesty Kiosk…

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The first thing I do when I see this kiosk was wondering about it’s name, The Honesty Kiosk. Yes, you will need some ample amount of honesty to shop in this kiosk.

Why, because this shop has no shopkeeper. All you have to do is pick your magazine and put your money in the money box. If you need a change, you can pick your change yourself from the money box…

Wait a minute…Does that mean someone could take all the money inside the money box?. I mean, if he could take his change himself from the moneybox, then he could also take all the money inside the money box, right?.

Yes, that’s right *Clever reader *. That’s why I said you will need not only the money, but also some honesty to shop in this kiosk.

The above description board says,

The Honesty Kiosk,
is a newspaper kiosk without a shopkeeper.
Please take the magazine you like.

Put the money in the money box.
Take your change yourself, if any.
We really appreciate your honesty.

Let’s start an honest generation from now on.
Don’t filth our life with stealing.

The money box. Note the corner of the ten thousand rupias bill below the white-stock-list-paper in the center of the photo.

Now, you might wonder about does the kiosk profit all these time *Haha, I read your mind *. Please take a look at below picture…

The above description board says,

The Honesty Kiosk cashier report
year 2010.

Month _ _ January February March April May June July August September

Value of the magazines in Rupiah 359.500 182.900 269.900 313.900 477.400 475.000 502.600 447.700 410.500

Amount of money inside the money box in Rupiah 365.000 184.000 277.900 321.500 475.000 476.100 499.500 445.500 409.500

Surplus/Losses _ _ 5.500 1.100 8.000 7.600 (2.400) 1.100 (1.100) 2.200 (1.000)

Total Surplus/Loses: 20.200 Rupias

Well, although honesty is pretty a rare virtue in Indonesia, I’m glad that huge amount of honesty is still can be found in this little corner. Well done !!!

This kiosk is located at Graha Mitra, Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto Kav. 21, Karet Semanggi, South Jakarta, Indonesia. So, be sure to visit it in your next trip to Jakarta, Indonesia.

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Note the description board on the right side of the photo and the money box between the description board and the magazines, above the black cupboard.

The Weird & Colorful World of Fungi

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Mushrooms: A Rainbow of Oddness

Ladies and gentlemen: the wonderful, and let’s not forget weird, World of Fungi.

The following illustrations are from Johan Theodor Holmskjold‘s ‘Beata Ruris Otia Fungis Danicis Impensa‘, or Happy Resting Periods in the Country Studying Danish Fungi. More can be found at the Harvard University Herbaria: The Life and Works of Theodor Holmskjold:

[Via] & [Via]

Let’s play a game: animal, mineral, or vegetable? The answer? Two out of three: scientists consider fungi to be part of a separate and unique kingdom, in that they aren’t plants and they’re not animals:

[Via] & [Via]

It’s this ‘not one and not the other’ that make fungi so wonderful – and somewhat disturbing – to study. At their most identifiable they are a fundamental part of our diet: buttons & portobellos, shitakes, oysters, morels, chanterelles, and more – including the expensive yet ubiquitous truffle. But fungi are also essential to make many of our foods … well, food: without them we wouldn’t have cheese, beer, wine, bread and too many others to name. If that isn’t impressive enough, our odd not-quite-an-animal, not-quite-a-plant, is also indispensable to medicine: penicillin, the cornerstone of antibiotics, was mold found in a Petri dish, after all. In fact some experts claim that if anything were to happen to our fungal friends humanity would be, at worst, extinct, or at best, pretty miserable.

[Via]

There’s a stranger side to the fungal world – in fact a rainbow of oddness. Mushrooms, you may think, are brown or white, right? But fungi can also be spectacularly colorful: the Parrot Waxcap is as green as grass, the Crimson Waxy Cap is sunset crimson, and the Slimy Spike-cap is even bright purple:

[Via] [Via] [Via]

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Even when fungi are brown and dull appearances can be deceiving: the aptly named stinkhorn, for example, produces the aroma of rotting meat to attract flies, which help the mushroom spread its spores. Speaking of spore-spreading, the puffball mushroom and its various relations do it in a very dramatic fashion, quite literally shooting their spawn into the air when touched. The puffball can grow to giant size too (More info).

[Via]

Spaltblattlinge (Schizophyllum), [Via]

Chicken Mushroom & Sulphur Shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus), [Via]

Cookeina & Latticed Stinkhorn (Clathrus rubber), [Via] & [Via]

Wood Blewit (Clitocybe nuda) & Lepista Nuda, [Via] & [Via]

Clathrus Archeri, [Via]

Pom-pom or Noodle Shape: Hericium erinaceus, [Via]

Dog Stinkhorn (Mutinus caninus), [Via]

Anemone Stinkhorn (Aseroe rubra), [Via]

There are even varieties of mushroom that aren’t just colorful but actually glow in the dark: the Jack o’ Lantern (Omphalotus olearius), for example, is a celebrated bioluminescent fungus, as is the Australian ghost fungus. The ones shown below are Mycena chlorophos found in Japanese and Brazilian forests (more info):

Clathrus Archeri, [Via] [Via]

Fear & Loathing of Fungi

However, for all their color and their clever tricks, fungi have an even odder side…Sure, fungi have given us much but they can also take it away, and not just for people who mistake an Amanita phalloides for an Amanita caesarea. Cryptococcus gattii, though rare, is alarmingly fatal and is airborne. How fatal? Well, it’s considered to be one of – if not the – most lethal fungal infections you can get. There are other deadly fungi, and as most of them are extremely opportunistic and durable, they can spread wildly and are all but impossible to kill. Just think athlete’s foot mixed with a rattlesnake. (More info)

Radiation-feasting Mushrooms

It’s fungi’s ability to grow just about anywhere that makes it so amazing. If you name a hostile environment there’s more than likely some form of mushroom or yeast that will not only grow there but prefer it over anywhere else. An extreme version of this is when researchers stuck their instruments into one of the most poisonous places on earth and found not only a species of mushroom growing there but one that actually appears to be feeding on the toxicity. How nasty is this place? Well, all you need to say is one word to shudder at the thought: Chernobyl. (More info, Link 1, Link 2)

But strangeness and fungi don’t end with radiation-feasting mushrooms, for there are quite a number of them that feast on other things — including animals. Nematophagous fungi, for instance, grow miniscule rings that, if a nematode happens to squirm into one, rapidly contract, trapping the unfortunate lunch … I mean ‘worm.’ If this makes you a bit nervous take a bit of consolation in that the popular oyster mushroom is also a nematode killer – and it’s also tasty, so while it eats them we also eat it.

Fistulina Hepatica (Tongue Shape: Beefsteak Polypore), [Via]

Eating isn’t the only dark thing fungi do

One particular species has an extremely disturbing lifecycle – and a terrifying one … if you happen to be an ant. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, if it gets half a chance, will infect an ant and (ahem) eat parts of its brain, causing the poor little insect to basically become the walking dead. The fungus finishes it off only after it clamps itself to the underside of a leaf, just where the fungus wants it to die – a location that works really well for the fungi, but definitely not the ant. (More info)

“P” is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, [Via]

The Fungus among Us

In conclusion, here is an interesting fact: while the jury is out on the subject, many experts point to a certain forest in Oregon (more info). What’s special about this hunk of land, that particular stand of trees? Well, the honey mushroom that lives there, and occupies over 2,200 acres of that forest, may very well be the largest organism on the earth.

Honey Mushroom System at least 2,400 years old – most of it hidden underground as a huge mass.

So we had better treat them well — all those wondrous fungi (here is another big one) — just in case that they, or just that single huge mushroom, should wake up and remind us of all they’ve done for us … or could do to us.

[Via]

(Source: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/09/carnivorous-plants-hungry-gorgeous.html)