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Silverjay
Jan 28, 2013 09:43 PM
This is at a "stamina" food place is in Omoide Yokocho, a well-known cluster of downmarket shacks near Shinjuku west exit. The article below says the frogs are raised for food and dispatched immediately with a knife. Their nerves continue to twitch and fire... I had beating eel heart when I was in Tokyo last month. You just swallow it. It's not meant as a serious dish. And anyway, Japanese will not be offended if you decline to eat something. It is not a culture that takes disrespect or offense for that sort of thing.
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re: Silverjay
It is similar to how a lobster will continue to move it's leg's and claws after being cut open or the proverbial "chicken with it's head cut off" that continues to run around in circles.
I get all that......I just don't want the thing on my plate....looking at me and winking at me as I'm eating it. lol sooooo gross/disturbing to me.
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re: jrvedivici
Silverjay
Jan 29, 2013 07:02 AM
Yeah, I agree. It's pretty fucked up. I'll never forget walking through markets in Vietnam and China watching the ladies skin and pare live frogs with scissors, pulling frog after frog from plastic buckets. This is kind of taking that to the next level.
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re: Silverjay
linguafood
Jan 29, 2013 09:17 AM
Ah, the good old "stamina" thing... I've always been curious why Asians (Chinese & Japanese in particular, but please correct me if I'm wrong) seem to be rather obsessed with keeping their stiffies. From what I've seen, most natural remedies / 'interesting foods' seem to cure just this one issue.
Thoughts?
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re: Veggo
linguafood
Jan 29, 2013 09:40 AM
As most natural "remedies" wont to be. Maybe it's an international boner obsession (well, clearly), but it seems more prevalent in Asian countries....
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re: linguafood
E Eto
Jan 29, 2013 09:45 AM
The usage of the English word stamina in Japan isn't about sexual energy. It's used to describe the state of being energetic in everyday life. See the examples of how the term is used in this link.
http://www.websaru.info/stamina.html -
re: linguafood
Silverjay
Jan 29, 2013 09:46 AM
Japanese use "stamina" to refer to dishes that give you overall vigor and vitality, particularly in the summer heat and not necessarily as a remedy for virility and the eternal boner.
Stamina dishes are usually various meats. In olden days, eating meat was prohibited, however some entrepreneurial restaurant owners got around this by offering what they called "medicinal food" for those who were weary and suffering. These restaurants were purely a cover for meat consumption, which obviously can offer a more dynamic protein alternative to soybeans and fermented fish, etc. When Japan opened in the 19th century, they became very conscious of Western body types and their meat-heavy diets. Pretty sure the term "stamina" in Japanese cuisine is a legacy of this.
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re: linguafood
Chemicalkinetics
Jan 29, 2013 11:34 AM
Sometime stamina can mean that, but often not. I think it just mean internal energy like "I can work long hours and still be creative" and not "1000 calories"
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re: Silverjay
silverjay - btw isn't this in piss alley in shinjuku no?
also i was going to say was this sort of reminded me of the eel heart we ate at that unagi joint although much more brutal (i ate two, my gf wouldn't eat it).
fyi for everyone else the eel heart was fine (doesn't taste like much), but it certainly was just a by-product of them using the whole eel not something that anyone was there for. And they kill the eel immediately with a stake to the head, but clearly it continues to move due to nerves twitching in case anyone was worried about the humanity of it all
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re: Lau
Silverjay
Jan 29, 2013 11:16 AM
Yeah, in Japanese, the sign says "Memory Lane" though, not Piss Alley or Drunkard's Way as it is euphemistically known.....And yeah, I mentioned the eel heart up thread. They just told us to swallow anyway. I was fine with that. I'm not sure I could do this frog twitchin' sashimi thing though!
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re: Silverjay
yah i know which place this was now that i think about it, i remember the interior. i actually tried to go eat there that first night i got into town bc we were starving and most places were closing down by then and it was one of the places that i thought was still open, but they ended up saying they were closing (didn't realize they served this though haha)
i think andrew zimmern went to some place like maybe this exact place in his tokyo episode
i could probably do it if i had to b/c i can eat almost anything once, but i have absolutely zero desire to eat this...way too intense for me
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re: Lau
klyeoh
Jan 31, 2013 02:25 AM
Like you, Lau, I chickened out. During one of my trips to Tokyo, a Japanese colleague took me to Asadachi restaurant in Shinjuku. I saw the live frog sashimi bit and literally leap-frogged out of that place!
P.S. - The name of the restaurant 'Asadachi' loosely translated to 'morning erection', my friend told me :-D
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sunshine842
Jan 28, 2013 10:29 AM
sorry, but NFW am I going to revisit and then eat my freshman-year science project.
Just drop a little extract of nicotine on that heart...then a little adrenaline to get it started again....and make sure those leg muscles get hooked up to a battery to watch them contact.
Blergh.
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The carving up of the frog is no different from any other animal being killed for your dinner plate
If more Japanese learned to eat frog, it might benefit the tunas!
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re: Violatp
Chemicalkinetics
Jan 28, 2013 03:18 PM
I don't think I will enjoy eating an animal while it is still alive and moving. It is just too much for me. That being said, we have to acknowledge the fact that most animals in the wild are consumed while they are alive. When a pack of wolves hunt down and eat a moose, a lot of time the moose is alive.
My problem is less about the fact that the animals were eaten alive, and more about there are people who actively seek out and enjoy eating a live animal.
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re: Veggo
Chemicalkinetics
Jan 28, 2013 03:55 PM
I actually have not watch the youtube, but I think I know what it is about -- based on other people's responses.
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WOW…..just F’ing WOW………I’m about as far from a food prude as you can get. I love steak….I love bacon…..I love all things meat. I have been to slaughter houses I know everything that goes into providing me with the tenderest marbled meat available. I know where veal comes from and ohhhhh do I love milk fed veal.
But do I want to eat my steak at a table inside the slaughter house or to pet the baby calf as they filet his legs? F’ NO !!!!!!!!!
I know full well the horrors that go into providing us with our food supply however I don’t need my meal blinking at me as I eat it. Uggghhhhhhhhhhh I’m having tofu for lunch!!!
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annagranfors
Jul 2, 2012 09:02 PM
Um...yeah, sorry...it may taste wonderful, but watching that video, eating vegan began to sound like an option. The frog was alive. It had a central nervous system, and was undoubtedly in pain while being "prepared" for consumption. And unless I'm terribly mistaken, frogs are not fish; they're amphibians.
Ukk. I dunno. I loved sushi with a mad passion, but between seeing things like this and wondering what radioactive or oil/BP-treated water the fish lived in, I've not been to a sushi bar in quite some time. There are a few here in Los Angeles that I'd still trust because of the skill of their sushi chefs in getting their fish, but I can't afford to eat there more than a few times a year. I wouldn't go to the places I used to go for inexpensive sushi any more.
And I'd never, ever, eat something that was blinking at me in its death throes. To each their own, though, I guess.
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Charles Yu
Jul 1, 2012 06:32 PM
Where's the 'heart'??!!
Around 30 years ago, on business trip to Japan, one of my client took us to a 'high class' place whence the chef did the same 'dissection' in front of us. However, the first course was the 'live beating heart' served on a shiso leaf!! To eat or not to eat?! That was the question!!!›3 Replies-
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re: dcArtisan
Charles Yu
Jul 2, 2012 09:15 AM
Doing business in Japan. Worst thing is to offend the host and show disrespect for his hospitality. So just followed him and eat. Actually, not too bad. Chewy not fishy at all. The soya sauce and wasabi masked almost everything anyways! Better than cobra gall bladder in Chinese wine!!
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re: Charles Yu
Bacardi1
Jul 2, 2012 05:05 PM
But if the chef provided so much soy sauce & wasabi that it masked the flavor of the fish (frog), then this chef/host was just trying to be spectacular/eccentric without any knowledge of the art of sushi. This was not true sushi, & a sad, sad, end for a frog.
I wouldn't have had any problem showing "disrespect" for my host, as he obviously had no respect for the art of sushi.
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letsindulge
Jul 1, 2012 06:24 PM
Ohhh...that was SO much worse then a live lobster sashimi my Mother had years ago! I COULD NOT do this.
