"respite" wrote in message
...
Yes and no. I have never seen shrimp or octopus served raw. For sushi,
both are boiled. After boiling shrimp, i cool them quickly in cold water
with a few cuts of fresh ginger (ie a finger sized peice to a gallon or
so of water. You would never notice the extra flavor in the final
product unless you were looking for it.).

Boiling mostly changes the texture, but will alter the flavor as well.

The idea of eating live food does not fit well for me.
It even seems a bit inhumane to me. Not trying to start an ethical flame
or anything, but if im going to be digested, i would hope i was killed
first. A fight between grinding jaws, a lack of fresh air, and stomach
acid seems like hell. That might fly with the rest of the food chain,
but not with me.

Plus the fact that most animals under extreme stress and/or in the last
pulses of life tend to purge their wastes..
--
respite



I eat Amaebi and Botan ebi raw all the time. Nearly all of my friends here
in the US do also.
In Japan I've had those enormous kuruma ebi raw and still kicking.
I have also enjoyed raw octopus (Nama dako) sashimi served with Umejio.

My feelings on living food is neutral. Ikezukuri was really popular in Japan
about 15 years ago, and I remember my American friends flipping out when the
served fish would suddenly flare its gill cover. I have to admit that kind
of took
me by surprise as well. Whether we are talking about ikezukuri or swallowing
down
a few blue points at the Oyster Bar, we are always talking about
"freshness", and not
any particular weird pleasure in eating things alive for the sake of it.

Musashi