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Japan's ‘dancing zombie squid’

bbc.com

1–10 of 35 posts

Re: Japan's ‘dancing zombie squid’

#5

There’s something particularly unedifying - for me, at least - in making a dead animal 'perform' for you before you eat it. I was surprised the bbc adopted such a neutral tone on this one.

Why would they not? Clearly at least some people (the consumers in Japan) think this is ok, so why would the bbc choose your point of view over theres? This is called objective journalism.

Re: Japan's ‘dancing zombie squid’

#6
Japan is probably the only country that keeps suprising me and is often (in my eyes) absolutely contradictory - I love many of their animes, some of their movies (e.g. the old samurai classics, "I am a hero", etc) some of their music (I listen from time to time to "J1 radio"), but at the same time e.g. some other animes really go over my thresholds, they have the problem with child prostitution, keep fishing anything that moves, are ultra-protectionist, etc... .

Incredible.

How did it happen that they're sometimes absolutely great/avantgarde/etc... and then sometimes they fall back to the exact opposite?

I often think that on the day when I'll be able to understand japan culture, I'll have no challenges left on this planet => I'll need some kind of extraterrestrial-invasion or faster-then-light-travel to find new interesting stuff to understand :)

Re: Japan's ‘dancing zombie squid’

#7

There’s something particularly unedifying - for me, at least - in making a dead animal 'perform' for you before you eat it. I was surprised the bbc adopted such a neutral tone on this one.

It's both a matter of taste and a cultural thing. The first time I was in Seoul, a friend of mine took me to a place where they served "live octopus" with raw meat + raw egg yolk. It was extremely delicious, the raw octopus legs where still moving and twisting (just like in this example it was just nervous endings activated by chemicals in the food), they even wrapped around the chopsticks. The octoups + the yolk + raw meat provided an incredible mix of flavours and textures. I'm not Asian (actually I'm from South America), but my friend told me I already ate most than what even a typical S.Korean eats. I guess I was just more used to experience "weird" food because my family is from the country side in Chile and I also I really like to eat/try all kinds of sea food.

Going back to your comment: it's not just about making the animal "perform", I see it more as a proof of freshness. In the end is all about the textures and flavours.

So much talking about food, now I'm hungry :)

Re: Japan's ‘dancing zombie squid’

#8
post #6

Japan is probably the only country that keeps suprising me and is often (in my eyes) absolutely contradictory - I love many of their animes, some of their movies (e.g. the old samurai classics, "I am a hero", etc) some of their music (I listen from time to time to "J1 radio"), but at the same time e.g. some other animes really go over my thresholds, they have the problem with child prostitution, keep fishing anything…

I think the best way for you to be able to understand them better is to remember while they are a country with a population of 120 million. There is going to be contradictions in their culture.

Re: Japan's ‘dancing zombie squid’

#10

There’s something particularly unedifying - for me, at least - in making a dead animal 'perform' for you before you eat it. I was surprised the bbc adopted such a neutral tone on this one.

It's both a matter of taste and a cultural thing. The first time I was in Seoul, a friend of mine took me to a place where they served "live octopus" with raw meat + raw egg yolk. It was extremely delicious, the raw octopus legs where still moving and twisting (just like in this example it was just nervous endings activated by chemicals in the food), they even wrapped around the chopsticks. The octoups + the yolk + r…

> I see it more as a proof of freshness

seems like the most practical reason, though the practice does make me very uncomfortable

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