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[demented]

I don't know where to ask this so here it goes: I can't eat certain foods based on how they look. By this I mainly mean food that still looks like when it was alive. For example I barely eat any fish because just looking at whole fish like that makes me gag (not literally fortunatelly) but I really can't make myself it it, it WILL taste bad for me, sames goes for most seafood. I know at a lot of places they can clean it up for you but fish is expensive anyway in restaurants so combined with the look issue I usually stay away. I can eat tuna for example(canned) without issues.
Sidenote: for some reason I hate sushi, I reeeally don't like the taste, raw fish, soy sauce etc but this is kinda unrelated to general issue.

I was just watching buzzfeed's worth it episode on peking duck and looking all those poor geese felt disgusting. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for eating them but just looking at the animal there, plucked and/or cooked, yuck. Same goes with all the other animals really.


So anyone else like this or knows what the fuck is up with me?

 

[TrainedRage]

I think that a pretty common feeling.

I don't want to be reminded that this was a living animal while i'm eating it. But typically you have a choice. You are not weird you are being empathetic. It's a good thing.

 

[demented]

Maybe, but got me thinking beucase in the video they were drooling over those ducks. Or in general in life, here it's pretty common to have a roast pig/sheep/goat or whatever, roast it whole over fire then usually they cut parts for you and serve but sometimes you do it, could never eat that.

oh and also it another video on buzzfeed they were eating some animal, forgot which, but it was filled with all sorts of things and served as whole, and 10+ people around table were all super excited and that too kinda made me question myself for a bit. Was just curious why this is the case, empathy toward animals maybe hm

 

[Dark Star]

i would never eat a cooked fish with the head still attached to the body

but i have been with family members who were served it like that before at more traditional cuisine restaurants, and it's just weird, because the fish is looking at me lol

though, if i went camping / fishing myself and caught that fish myself, then i'd take a lot more pride in the act.

 

[Dokku]

I think it's just down to your own preferences and how you perceive your food. Personally it doesn't bother me at all. I've been present at the slaughtering of a cow and hours later I was eating the flesh of that very cow without a second thought. I can entirely understand why it might put people off though.

 

[TrainedRage]

It's aesthetics, some people like that, some don't. It looks authentic and sometimes more artistic. And some people don't like that art. But it can also make the food taste better in some cases.

 

[Greedings]

I don't get it. It seems to me that if your thought process is something along the lines of "my food was once alive, I don't want to eat it" you should be a vegetarian.
Did you never go to farms while you were growing up, and see how food is produced? Alright...a sanitised, kid friendly version, but nonetheless as a child you learn that beef comes from cow!

 

[rokkerkory]

No sushi bro?? Wth

More for me!

 

[Breakage]

This is one of the reasons I'm a vegetarian.

 

[llien]

There are more peculiar pics to demonstrate the weirdness of it:

I don't get why people do it either.

 

[pineapplepizza]

Eat with your eyes closed

 

[Makariel]

I have no problem with eating a fish that looks like a fish. I have kind of the opposite issue: I dislike eating any meat where I can't tell its from an animal. Like fish fingers, how much fish is really in them? I make an exception for a good burger though. Most of the week I'm vegetarian, but when I eat meat I want to make sure where it's coming from.

 

[RubxQub]

I can generally sympathize with this.

One time I ordered a full lobster just to see...and I had such a hard time getting it down. Like I love lobster...but seeing a literal lobster on my plate just makes it seem so unappetizing. I forced myself to get through it anyways.

I guess it's a mental thing where I have a harder time disassociating the actual animal from food when it still looks like the literal animal.

We'd have all died in the hunter/gatherer days.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

One of my favorite food experiences in Japan involved a freshly killed lobster, and eating it's tail served as sashimi while it's head was looking at me. It was still moving. Was delicious. They also did the same with the prawns on my plate, but they deep fried the heads afterwards. I could post pics but that may gross some of you sensitive people out.

 

[lil puff]

I am at best inconsistent on this.

I don't mind the fish head, but I don't dig all inside of it like Andrew Zimmern. I may get the cheeks if they are easily accessible, but usually I will throw it out if I made whole fish. Fish with the head just tastes better overall, but yeah I'm not too big on seeing it. One time I had sushi, and something was a bit crunchy. The eel head was still in it. Now i cannot eat eel anymore.

I believe people when they say head meat of pigs or cows is good eating. However you would probably have to serve it to me on the side already on the plate. I can't sit there at the table with the whole hog head there for me to pick things out of it. Yet, I will pick pigs feet apart, or oxtail with my bare hands.

I grew up around crabs, so that is a non issue. Lobster is something I rarely eat. I cannot suck and eat the shrimp heads, nor the shell.

I have a slight thing about poultry because when we were young my dad took us to slaughterhouses to pick a bird and watch it get killed. So I tend to not like when poultry still has it's feet or neck on.

Now that I read myself, I think I mostly have a problem with looking at my food look at me.
The rest of the carcass is not that much an issue.

 

[demented]

That's not my issue tho. I don't mind hunting (been meaning to go) or anything with animals in general, my grandad used to keep pigs when I was little and slaughtered them for meat, I'm pretty sure I'd have no problem doing it myself, I don't particular want to but if I had to, I just can't eat food that looks alive to me, either it's purely for aesthetic reasons or some mental block I don't know, it's weird.

Oh well, just wanted to see if I'm alone on this, google didn't bring anything up or I failed to search properly.

P.S. As for sushi, sushi is broad term but in general I almost don't like any, I don't enjoy the taste of it, I don't like soy sauce either, don't like raw fish or a lot of other sea food, don't like wasabi and a lot of other things, I know friends keep pestering me about not liking sushi but oh well. And not like I didn't give it a proper shot, I was in Tokyo few years back and gave it a shot few times, friend loved it while I could barely stand to swallow it without gaging, eh this is just a preference of my taste buds I guess.
And while at weird things, I can't drink 99% of wine, I actually had a thread before on that, most wine taste like vinegar to me and I spent a while searching for what works for me but that's very expensive sport so I kinda gave up and try random thing from time to time but still I can do only 1 type of it.

 

[lil puff]

^I think I'm saying a similar thing.

I honestly find sushi to be kinda overrated and trendy. I don't find it horrible, it's just not that mindblowing... rice, raw fish, ginger, etc. I would rather have some smoked brisket!

One thing I find weird is sweet popcorn. When I was about 12, I had some at the theatres, threw up. Ever since, I can't walk anywhere in the same vicinity of the smell of that stuff or I get a gag reflex.

 

[ar0s]

I don't get it. It seems to me that if your thought process is something along the lines of "my food was once alive, I don't want to eat it" you should be a vegetarian.
Did you never go to farms while you were growing up, and see how food is produced? Alright...a sanitised, kid friendly version, but nonetheless as a child you learn that beef comes from cow!

Plants are very much alive.

 

[Greedings]

Plants are very much alive.

And yet no one seems to care if they look like they do in a field.

 

[Codes 208]

Ill eat lobsters, but i cant do the killing. Frankly, I dont care if it was alive at one point, I just dont want to be the one to end it. I'd give up meat with that thought process if it werent for the fact that animals are just too tasty.

Plus I eat a lot of fish. Fish is good for you.

Plants are very much alive.

Not on the level of thought processing organisms, they're complicated in their own ways but they lack a nervous system to be truly sentient. its not exactly comparative to, say, eating pork.