Monday, October 23, 2006
warning.PLEASE do not read this while eating.
PLEASE do not read this while eating.
If we are to believe the latest urban myths circulating through the Internet, eating sashimi (raw fish) causes maggots in the brain while "grilled and barbecued babies" are the "hottest food item" now in Japan, each fetus supposedly available for 10,000 to 12,000 yen (about 4,300 pesos to 5,200 pesos) from hospitals.
These two "scoops" came in through my e-mail the last two weeks, complete with ghastly photographs. I could tell immediately that these were fabricated news, but to be sure, I checked an Internet site, www.snopes.com, which specializes in exposing these urban legends. Sure enough, the website had the two stories, entitled "maggot brain" and "fetal feast," complete with explanations on how these urban legends came to be.
The sashimi maggot yarn builds around an actual photograph of a man who was having a brain operation at Stanford University, following a vehicular accident. The "fetal feast" scam, on the other hand, was described as occurring in Taiwan, and featured the photograph of a man supposedly eating a fetus. It turns out the photograph was that of a Chinese performance artist doing his piece, "Eating People," with what looks like a doll's head grafted on to pieces of animal meat.
The new version forwarded to me had more photographs, including that of a woman in a grocery buying a bottle of "pickled brain." (I could read the Chinese characters, but I am certain it isn't human brain: the bottle was conveniently positioned to hide the other half of the label.) There was another picture showing a butcher slicing some brain, much too large to be human. Finally, there were several photographs of what looked to me like a hospital autopsy of an infant.
Urban legends often reflect social tensions and prejudices. As the Snopes website points out, if the fetus story had been located in Canada, people would have rejected it right away, but set in Taiwan (or now, Japan) it suddenly becomes plausible.
These anti-Japanese urban myths, even if intended to be jokes, will acquire a life of its own, people passing on the stories as facts and cited to "prove" the Japanese are immoral, if not amoral.
I know some readers are probably anxious now and wondering if indeed sashimi might cause brain maggots. I did my research and can say that sashimi isn't any riskier, in relation to food-borne bacteria and parasites, than other raw or lightly cooked seafood, including shrimps, mussels, clams and a wide assortment of fish, from salmon and herring to tuna and tanguinge.
Cultures all over the world have developed ways of marinating raw seafood, using onions, garlic, salt, limes, vinegar or wasabi (horseradish root) to disinfect the food. The risks of poisoning from these foods come not so much from their being raw than in the way they're handled, with bare hands for example, or if exposed to the heat and to insects and other contaminants.
*ill post some of the pics later.
*copyright.
If we are to believe the latest urban myths circulating through the Internet, eating sashimi (raw fish) causes maggots in the brain while "grilled and barbecued babies" are the "hottest food item" now in Japan, each fetus supposedly available for 10,000 to 12,000 yen (about 4,300 pesos to 5,200 pesos) from hospitals.
These two "scoops" came in through my e-mail the last two weeks, complete with ghastly photographs. I could tell immediately that these were fabricated news, but to be sure, I checked an Internet site, www.snopes.com, which specializes in exposing these urban legends. Sure enough, the website had the two stories, entitled "maggot brain" and "fetal feast," complete with explanations on how these urban legends came to be.
The sashimi maggot yarn builds around an actual photograph of a man who was having a brain operation at Stanford University, following a vehicular accident. The "fetal feast" scam, on the other hand, was described as occurring in Taiwan, and featured the photograph of a man supposedly eating a fetus. It turns out the photograph was that of a Chinese performance artist doing his piece, "Eating People," with what looks like a doll's head grafted on to pieces of animal meat.
The new version forwarded to me had more photographs, including that of a woman in a grocery buying a bottle of "pickled brain." (I could read the Chinese characters, but I am certain it isn't human brain: the bottle was conveniently positioned to hide the other half of the label.) There was another picture showing a butcher slicing some brain, much too large to be human. Finally, there were several photographs of what looked to me like a hospital autopsy of an infant.
Urban legends often reflect social tensions and prejudices. As the Snopes website points out, if the fetus story had been located in Canada, people would have rejected it right away, but set in Taiwan (or now, Japan) it suddenly becomes plausible.
These anti-Japanese urban myths, even if intended to be jokes, will acquire a life of its own, people passing on the stories as facts and cited to "prove" the Japanese are immoral, if not amoral.
I know some readers are probably anxious now and wondering if indeed sashimi might cause brain maggots. I did my research and can say that sashimi isn't any riskier, in relation to food-borne bacteria and parasites, than other raw or lightly cooked seafood, including shrimps, mussels, clams and a wide assortment of fish, from salmon and herring to tuna and tanguinge.
Cultures all over the world have developed ways of marinating raw seafood, using onions, garlic, salt, limes, vinegar or wasabi (horseradish root) to disinfect the food. The risks of poisoning from these foods come not so much from their being raw than in the way they're handled, with bare hands for example, or if exposed to the heat and to insects and other contaminants.
*ill post some of the pics later.
*copyright.
i look upon the moon and stars at 10/23/2006 07:25:00 PM
0 stars were shining bright even without the moon
0 stars were shining bright even without the moon