isn't shellfish gross?

[MinDonner]

Technically, the plural of octopus is not octopi, but it's gradually gaining ground due to lots of other people pretending they know how to pluralise Latin-sounding words.

Also, I really want to eat some shrimp now. Or shrimps?

[Arkhangel]

A few days ago, I was sitting by the coast in the low water when I felt something touching my leg. I brushed against it with my hand and only when it touched me repeatedly I bothered to look at what it was. It was an actual living, wild octopus, pale as the stones under it. (I may have panicked a bit. :blushing:)

 

Later I remembered that I had eaten octopus in some kind of stew for lunch that day. It is weird - I certainly was not that shocked to see tentacles in a pot on the table as I was upon seeing them moving and attached to a living animal with seeing eyes in the sea.

 

The octopus that touched me was a smart, curious being who was probably wondering what weird creature I was and came to see and touch to determine if I was a friendly being likely to establish intelligent contact with it. And I might just have eaten its sister! When it had determined that, it could plot a vicious attack on me too, that is how smart octopus ... (what is the plural form again?) are!

 

/weird thoughts

 

So yeah ... calamari, shrimps, clams and stuff are good, I very much like them. Octopus is just a little less good because it is weird like chewing gum, but I still eat it.

 

It is weird that calamari and octopus count as "shellfish". They certainly have no shells.

 

I'm genuinely opposed to eating cephalopods because they're such intelligent beings. It's like eating a chimpanzee or a dolphin, it's really particularly not cool (as opposed to the usual kind of 'not cool but tolerable', which as a vego I ascribe to the eating of most animals).

[.H.]

There isn't much rhyme or reason to why I eat the shellfish I do and not others. For example, I hate shrimp, no matter how it's prepared. I will eat strip clams, fried, no other way. I will not eat oysters at all, nor will I eat crab. I don't really have good reasons for this, but I think most of it is about texture. I used to eat fried clams as a kid though, so, I guess there is some nostalgia there too.

Lobster is fine, but like others have said, its more about the butter than anything else. I live in the heart of crawfish country now, so I do eat boiled crawfish on occasion, or crawfish etouffee. It's not like my favorite thing though.

I will definitely eat the hell out of some fresh (and only if it is fresh) calamari. Fried is the best (give me all the tentacles). Calamari fra diavolo is really good too. I've have scungilli and calamari in a red sauce before too. Not my favorite, but the scungilli tastes a lot like a mushroom to me.

I really dislike any fish besides a flaky white fish like founder (again, what I ate as a kid) but down here I tolerate catfish pretty regularly.

[The Anti-Targ]

The plural is octopi. The best reason for eating seafood is given a chance, it will eat you. The second reason is iodine. Lack of iodine in your diet gives you a host of medical problems but this is easily solved by eating seafood. I like the taste of seafood. It reminds me of something. The sea.

Actually the plural is octopus(s?)es. Octopus is Greek and sticking an "i" on the end of words to pluralise is a distinctly Latin thing.

 

Seaweed is best for iodine, so no need to eat the critters as an excuse for getting your iodine fix. However I am going to assume people who think shellfish is a gross food group are also going to be a bit icky about eating seaweed.\

 

I'm also thinking prawns, and BMS are not really in the maneater game, unless you're already dead and you are being scavanged and bits are falling off and drifting towards the shellfish beds.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Actually the plural is octopus(s?)es. Octopus is Greek and sticking an "i" on the end of words to pluralise is a distinctly Latin thing.

 

The plural is either octopuses or octopodes. And yes, it's Greek not Latin.

[Nas!]

 
The plural is either octopuses or octopodes. And yes, it's Greek not Latin.

Actually, it's Mesopotamian, and it's octopants.

[Hoppy Hour]

I love people hating food that I love, it means more for me, and lower prices too (demand and supply).

[IamMe90]

I love people hating food that I love, it means more for me, and lower prices too (demand and supply).

Unfortunately this hasn'the happened with shellfish :(

[The Killer Snark]

I pride myself on being a gourmand, but crap is something I've never taken to and never will do. I just find it overly sweet and pungent. I do like lobster, though. It's like a kind of deluxe prawn. I like prawns, and most other shellfish apart from oysters, which I can take or leave, or mussels, which I can't tolerate; in fact, the taste of them makes me want to gag.

 

PS - Octopii and other sea cephalopods (such as polyps) are molluscs, but the prehistoric giant cuttlefish known as nautiloids could probably pass as shellfish, because they actually had shells.

[Buckwheat]

I'm genuinely opposed to eating cephalopods because they're such intelligent beings. It's like eating a chimpanzee or a dolphin, it's really particularly not cool (as opposed to the usual kind of 'not cool but tolerable', which as a vego I ascribe to the eating of most animals).

Good point, but when you see them in front of you on the table, you really do not think about it, you just see tentacles with those round sucking thingies and well, it is just food. :dunno:

 

I pride myself on being a gourmand, but crap is something I've never taken to and never will do. I just find it overly sweet and pungent. I do like lobster, though. It's like a kind of deluxe prawn. I like prawns, and most other shellfish apart from oysters, which I can take or leave, or mussels, which I can't tolerate; in fact, the taste of them makes me want to gag.

 

PS - Octopii and other sea cephalopods (such as polyps) are molluscs, but the prehistoric giant cuttlefish known as nautiloids could probably pass as shellfish, because they actually had shells.

Another good point, I have also never taken to eating crap. :P

 

Nautiloids still have shells, they are still in existance. ;)

[Wise Fool]

 

I'm fairly sure most hunter-gatherers did not prepare their food in stainless steel cookware over a heating element. 

 

The lobsters you buy from the grocery store, etc. are already cooled down so they are somewhat insensate of what's going on. I'm fairly sure boiling/steaming them is a lot less "primal" than slaughtering a cow or chicken. 

 

When you order beef or chicken at a restaraunt, though, they don't go ahead and find a chicken or cow and slaughter it for you. They don't have a cage or pen there, where you select which animal in particular you would like murdered for your dining pleasure. It's the killing that appeals to that primal nature, not how exactly it is done.

[Aemon Stark]

I admit I've never thought about it in those terms, even when I've been the one dropping the lobsters right in the pot. I've even had meals which consisted of nothing more than mussels, raw oysters, whole lobster, and lemon meringue pie. 

 

Of course, the joke about lobster is that historically it was food for poor people in little coastal towns. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Yes, in the early US colonies shellfish was considered low quality food for poor people. Servants would look for a position that fed them shellfish no more than once or twice a week.

My wife and son both love shellfish of all varieties. I was never exposed to it until adulthood and I find that I don't enjoy the texture or the slight briny flavor. I enjoy lots of types of fish.

[TerraPrime]

When you order beef or chicken at a restaraunt, though, they don't go ahead and find a chicken or cow and slaughter it for you. They don't have a cage or pen there, where you select which animal in particular you would like murdered for your dining pleasure. It's the killing that appeals to that primal nature, not how exactly it is done.

 

Most restaurants don't for beef or pork, because slaughtering and dressing the animals take a lot of time, and very few customers will consume an entire animal in one meal. 

 

I have had a goat slaughtered fresh and cooked though, once, at a restaurant in Inner Mongolia. Also, many larger backyard gatherings will slaughter and roast a whole pig as a full event. 

 

At any rate, chickens, which are smaller, can be and are slaughtered fresh at some restaurants in China. The same with any other animals like squabs or snakes or fish. Why wouldn't you want the meat to be as fresh as possible? For chicken and other animals the freshness is less of an issue as with seafoods. The quality of seafood goes down much more rapidly after they're dead, so freshness makes s proportionally larger difference than other animal flesh. 

[Wise Fool]

That all is true enough, but I still contend there's something else also going on, psychologically with the lobster murder situation. People get this look in their eyes, a kind of glassy, far-away look, as if dulled by lust. Why else would there be so much meat consumption in the world when it's much more efficient to use land (and energy and labor) to grow crops? When, at least in the US, we eat too much meat in general. It's a recreational activity, and a kind of luxury one at that. Whether social or more psychological, people relish the killing and consumption of food the same way that Hannibal relishes the killing and consumption of people.

 

It's just something I think about. Like, there are a couple of science fiction plots that hinge on aliens whose motive is to use humans as food. And these always seem so weird and silly, because why would anyone go to the trouble of trying to domesticate humans for food? Are we that tasty? But thinking about how we treat our steak and lobster, it sure is a lot of work to get that kind of food to the consumer's waiting maw. But it's not merely the taste, it's not the nutritional value, it's the whole tantalizing story of the utter domination of these creatures by ourselves, all for your pleasure. You become the god and they become the sacrificial offerings to you. Who doesn't like that, at least a little bit? Some weirdo, that's who.

[NestorMakhnosLovechild]

That all is true enough, but I still contend there's something else also going on, psychologically with the lobster murder situation. People get this look in their eyes, a kind of glassy, far-away look, as if dulled by lust. Why else would there be so much meat consumption in the world when it's much more efficient to use land (and energy and labor) to grow crops? When, at least in the US, we eat too much meat in general. It's a recreational activity, and a kind of luxury one at that. Whether social or more psychological, people relish the killing and consumption of food the same way that Hannibal relishes the killing and consumption of people.

 

It's just something I think about. Like, there are a couple of science fiction plots that hinge on aliens whose motive is to use humans as food. And these always seem so weird and silly, because why would anyone go to the trouble of trying to domesticate humans for food? Are we that tasty? But thinking about how we treat our steak and lobster, it sure is a lot of work to get that kind of food to the consumer's waiting maw. But it's not merely the taste, it's not the nutritional value, it's the whole tantalizing story of the utter domination of these creatures by ourselves, all for your pleasure. You become the god and they become the sacrificial offerings to you. Who doesn't like that, at least a little bit? Some weirdo, that's who.

 

I think there might be a wee touch of projection going on here...

 

In my experience, as a once-proselytizing vegan and Peter Singer aficionado, is that most people try to think as little about how their food is made as possible, and will generally try to steer the conversation away to more polite conversation if you insist on bringing it up.

[A True Kaniggit]

Bwahaha! Tomorrow actually is surf and turf Friday. So innumerable crab and shrimp shall be eaten!

[Mlle. Zabzie]

I don't eat shellfish.  I literally don't touch the stuff.  To be fair, that's more because I might cease to breathe.

[Wise Fool]

 

I think there might be a wee touch of projection going on here...

 

In my experience, as a once-proselytizing vegan and Peter Singer aficionado, is that most people try to think as little about how their food is made as possible, and will generally try to steer the conversation away to more polite conversation if you insist on bringing it up.

Maybe that's what they try to think, but you can't really repress certain truths, and they inevitably pop up subconsciously and manifest in certain ways. The lust-dulled eyes, etc. And the high profitability of the meat industry.

[Gertrude]

I loooove seafood and shellfish, but I live in the middle of the god-damned country, just about equally far from the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gulf. Yep, well and truly fucked in terms of fresh seafood. When I travel I like to indulge in it when I can. It's not like I don't eat it at home, it's just not as good, thus I don't partake as much.