There’s a great little sushi place at the railway station in Bath that I frequently breakfast at when I’m travelling. The first time I went in there, I noticed something strange and took this picture — all over the walls there are photos of live seafood. This is quite common in seafood restaurants and doesn’t seem strange on its own, but can you imagine if McDonalds had pictures of live cows & chickens up on the walls??
I wonder what it is in our minds that makes it appetising to see the original live animal when it’s seafood, but not beef or chicken.
Posted by Meri @ 12:50 PM on April 17, 2005
Comments (2) Permalink
Comments (2) Permalink
April 17th, 2005 at 5:18 PM
Most of us, as least in the West, have never been fed a cow or chicken with the head on. Mny of us have been served a whole trout. In fact, can you imagine a can of headless sardines?
Not every one deal with whole seafood though. I’ve know a few people (all men, oddly enough) who just couldn’t deal with it.
As far as the mammals go, pigs do seem to be the exception. Pigs roasted on a spit usually have the head still attached.
Live cows are used to make dairy products appetizing. Perhaps it’s really a continuation of the double standard when it comes to nudity – it’s fine to show bovine breasts to sell products, but not bull testicles.
April 18th, 2005 at 11:36 AM
It’s something I’ve really never understood. Personally I don’t like the “shrink-wrapped omnivore” phenomenon — the people who aren’t vegetarian, but don’t like to realise that their meat comes from animals. I have more respect for vegetarians who don’t like to have things killed on their behalf and therefore don’t eat meat … although the corollary to this is I feel perfectly fine munching on steak, because if need be I would happily go out and hunt my own.