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The appearance of sea animals is like insects. I cannot understand how people eat them.
If you really stop and think about the food you're eating, you can make yourself disgusted by it all.
Plants turn cow shit into vegetables
Hot dogs, I don't even need to explain that any further
You ever seen what the process of processing animals looks like?
I used to work in a meat factory so here's a fun fact from my time there: The Hotdogs we made were mostly comprised of leftover pig skin that's been processed with other leftover pig meats into the delicious meat tubes we know and love. They're really just meat amalgams shaped like sausages.
It sounds disgusting, but it's a delicious way to avoid food waste
Exactly! Everyone likes to act like Hotdogs are this evil mass-produced processed meat, when in reality they're just a way to not waste parts of the animal that are normally less desired.
"If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs."
I was a picky eater growing up (now I'm an adult with a "refined pallette") and I could still eat hot dogs. It was some of the only meat I could eat. I still struggle with eating meat (especially beef) but I can always rely on hotdogs at cookouts.
Troy McClure: "The killing floor isn't actually a floor; it's more like a grate."
I nean that was the original purpose of a sausage.
Put every meat which doesn't look good but is still edible in a tube form and reduce waste
I'm from Pennsylvania. Wait until I explain what scrapple is. I love it but try not to think too deeply about what's in there.
But pig skin is delicious
Chicharrones
My dad always said theyre made from pig lips and assholes. Is this true?
That prevents food waste
I always see people seem disgusted when they hear this but I think it's awesome that the leftovers are used instead of being thrown away.
What about places that don't eat pigs? Is cow skin equally as edible?
Pretty sure cow skin has more valuable uses like leather. I imagine beef hot dogs are made from the scraps of meat left on the carcass and trimmings from cutting the main cuts. Then the intestine is used to pack it in the tube.
Waste of good pig skin if you ask me, chicharrones is so much tastier
Never heard of those before, are they kind of like Pork Rinds?
Not just kind of, it's the same thing. For some reason I often forget that they're called pork rinds, I once spent several minutes on the snack aisle looking right over them because I was searching for chicharrones and the brands they had were all labeled pork rinds, lol
This is a really good point. I have a friend that was gifted an Ostridge egg and its just been in her fridge for months because she's too freaked out to eat it. I told her its no different then regular eggs, its just like 20 chicken eggs at once lol which she has no problem with chicken eggs. Its all about what mind conditioning we have. There's people in the world that actual do eat land bugs and think its totally normal because it is for them.
Even down to your good ole chocolate bars. The FDA has a non zero limit of crushed insects in them.
Processing an animal isn’t that bad. Cutting up a deer actually made me feel better about the whole thing
Worcestershire sauce is one of the gnarliest products ever accidentally made. It’s gross as hell. But it’s delicious.
My dad was a big hunter and fishing guy. Seen so many dead and gutted deer, moose, elk, halibut, salmon, etc. One day he brought home two piglets that I got to help raise. Once they were big enough he butchered them but didn't tell me until I was half way done my plate.
As a 5 year old you'd think I would have freaked the fuck out that I was eating Bacon and Eggs (yes that was their names LOL) But all I remember thinking was "well... I've eaten lots of pigs I didn't know before.... And this this tasty." I finished that plate.
My point of this comment is that it you are exposed to where your food comes from, and how it's processed, it's not so gross/scary. I've now been a butcher for almost 10 years, so I really just grew up and into the meat industry
Hot dogs man
I left out something really important. I'm a vegetarian.
Fruits and veggies are appetizing. They don't have eyes or legs etc... They also just look like something you'd want to eat. Just think of watermelon and cherries and other fruits. Can they ever look gross to you?
Meat isn't appetizing to me. But seafood disgusts me the most.
NOT TRUE. at least not for me. I helped my uncle slaughter and skin a goat once when I was a kid. It smelled disgusting. But the same night I was eating the same meat. For bugs it's much different for me. I was once petting a dog, and there was a bump on his back. I pulled it out and it was a fucking tick and I accidentally crushed it in between my fingers. I was damn near about to cry.
Sea critters look so much like insects and bugs.
Well, assuming you're talking about shell fish....that checks. They're arthropods.
How do people eat them without gagging?
With butter, frequently.
Also people eat insects just fine in many parts of the world. Also people happily eat honey which is bee vomit.
I ate some very spicy fried insects during my time in SE Asia. 8/10 would eat again. No weirder than eating a lobster roll imo. Although I give a good lobster roll a 10/10.
Fried in some good ‘erl. Oh, lerd 🤤
Fried or boiled
I mean bugs are only gross to you because you were raised to believe it. If crickets were commonplace food they could be appetizing to you.
Crickets aren't particularly appetising on their own (really just tastes of dirt) but with some seasoning it's really not bad at all
That’s just saying seasoning tastes good which…no shit
Not really, there are plenty of things that you can put seasoning on and it'll still taste gross.
There’s a Mexican restaurant where I live that puts seasoned crickets on their guacamole. They’re actually pretty good. By themselves they taste like crunchy chilis
Lobster is common place food and to me is completely un-appetizing.
OP is right. You may as well eat a giant spider.
I'll eat bugs if they taste like crab
lots actually do
Examples?
Tarantulas have been said to taste like crab
"Yeah tarantulas taste like crab I swear" - 🦀
Those are the same people who say frog legs taste like chicken, or that any food tastes like a different food. Just because someone has weak taste buds doesn't mean two different foods are the same.
Even if it’s true, I never plan on finding out
Ants are eaten, crickets are eaten is asia etc
Many people in the world also eat actual bugs. If it’s tasty it’s food
That scene from the Lion King where Timone and Puma are eating the bugs makes me hungry af
Slimey, yet satisfying!
Lol, the only reason we don't is because insects bite us more than fish do
I say it’s time for revenge.
Cockroaches are also eaten fried or locusts
Honey is literally the vomit of insect. I’ve always been of the mind that you cannot call any food weird if you eat honey. Who cares where it comes from or what it looks like, as long as it tastes good.
Honey isn’t bee vomit at all, so you should probably abandon that mindset. Bees have something that people will often refer to as a “second stomach” that is used to make honey. It actually isn’t a stomach at all. It’s called a crop, and it’s sole purpose is to hold nectar and break it down into honey. Bees swallow the nectar into their crop and spit it up, making honey. The honey at no point enters their digestive system, meaning honey isn’t vomit. Honey being vomit is a myth.
Fine, bee spit-up
“Aktually the thing bees eat and then spit back out isn’t vomit cause it entered the second stomach instead of the first” ☝️🤓
It doesn’t enter the stomach at all. I said that this “second stomach” isn’t actually a stomach in my comment— that’s just the word people use colloquially to refer to it.
Vomit is partially digested food mixed with bile that comes from the stomach. Honey is not food or bile, nor is it partially digested. Meaning it’s not vomit, nor is it close to being vomit. Just because something comes from a living thing’s mouth doesn’t mean it’s vomit.
I’m not nitpicking at all. There is a pretty massive distinction between honey and vomit. Why can’t you just peacefully learn something instead of attacking someone that’s trying to impart knowledge on something that the majority of people are misinformed on? I grew up around bees and like teaching people about them.
So it’s not vomit (because vomit has food+bile)… is it closer to spit/saliva? Or milk?
"How do people eat them without gagging?"
Because they taste good and other people don't feel the way you do?
Many cultures also eat insects. Some are considered delicacies.
shrimps is bugs
shrimps is bugs
Delicious sea bugs
Huge portions of the human population eat bugs.
Look up how gelatin is made/extracted and you'll never want to eat gummy worms or anything "gummy" again.
I'll give you a hint, they dissolve cow bones and tendons (basically what's left over after slaughter) in acid and the gelatin is extracted from the gel that results.
Also some of the apples you buy are shiny because they're covered in Shellac, which is made from crushing beetles and extracting the resin from their shells.
Let's not forget some red food coloring is made from crushed beetles
Hey, that wasn't a hint, just a full blown explanation 🤣
Bugs are apart of normal everyday cuisine in many parts of the world, just because it's not a normal part of your cuisine doesn't mean it's inherently strange. Eating bugs is really no different than eating other animals like cows. If you can wrap your head around that, then eating "Sea Bugs" really makes no difference so long as they're delicious.
As a side note, salt and vinegar flavoured dried crickets are delicious but they get stuck in your teeth really easily.
You are not selling it with that last part dude
I mean, they do. Their little legs are like the shells of popcorn kernels the way their get between teeth.
The problem was not the imagery lol
Yes, I understood
That’s pretty silly logic. Have you ever been up close to a cow, pig, chicken, etc? You would probably say they’re filthy, gross, and smell terrible, and that would deter you from eating them.
Chapulines (small grasshoppers) with lime, a little salt, and hot sauce wrapped in warm tortilla sounds damn good right about now. I love me some oysters, clams, and mussels. I don’t care if shrimp are the cockroaches of the sea - l’d eat those mofos every day if I could.
Snails and frog legs yeah I’m cool off that .
People eat insects.
People eat bugs too 🤷
a lot of it is just cultural
Same. And the fact they just throw the entire dead carcass on the table. I don’t want to see the entire dead body with the eyes and everything.
Maybe it's because I don't have to encounter them in real life except for when I'm eating them.
I don't just see shrimps crawling around on the ground outside like roaches and spiders, so it's pretty easy to dissociate and mostly just view them as food.
Also they taste great so that helps
They are different species and honestly if I knew it was safe and stuff I'd probably try a bug if offered. My personal pov is that any food that's safe to eat is worth trying, I've eaten leaves out of fields and lawns before, so the bugs and sea creatures are probably cleaner. (It's the same veiw for haggis, black pudding and other foods made with modern day bits of animals we don't eat normlly)
And you never know although it's hard at first you might find something new you really like.
Humans can eat land insects too we just choose to only do the sea variety in the western world. It's only a matter of time before we do land too.
You eat parts, often time not whole. You don't eat a whole cow.
Because they taste good unlike insects
If you mean crustaceans, that’s because insects evolved from them. They are all related.
Are you also one of those people who can’t eat meat when there’s a bone in it
I don’t see the connection tbh. I guess a prawn with all its legs kinda looks like a bug… Crab is kinda like a spider I guess but also nothing like a spider. Otherwise, mussels/clams/oysters/scallops/abalone don’t look like any bug I’ve ever seen. Geoducks are funny looking but not bugs.
Interestingly, lobsters are considered cockroaches of the sea
Yeah crabs and lobsters and crawfish are basically just COCKroaches and spiders … ewwww hope I didn’t spoil ur sea food fetishh
Same way they happily eat animals that roll about in their own shit
I guess, as long as it tastes good people don't care, they just put the cruelty and grossness out of their minds
you know most places they eat normal bugs, right?
We talking like ... prawns? Lobsters?
This could have used some examples.
Lobsters are akin to giant cockroaches in some people’s eyes. Water bugs as I’ve heard
Ever open a fried piece of chicken breast? Purple, veiny, black and bony. Sick
if you look a crab or lobster in the face it’s significantly less disturbing than looking a dragonfly or a roach in the face and i attribute that to having what a creature should be born with TWO NORMAL EYES. Idc come at me, if you have more than two eyes even for an animal you’re a freak of nature, have as many legs and arms as you want but i draw the line at eyes.
I refuse to eat bottom-feeding seabugs.
I'd eat a bug
I put seafood in my mouth, I think "yummy", I swallow it
If it tastes good and won't make me sick I eat it.
Maybe appearance wise , but it’s not a 1:1 comparison. Seafood is delicious, bugs , well, aren’t lol.
I’ve eaten both and seafood is much better than most bugs. I get if people don’t like it though, it has some distinct flavours.
Yeah 100% plus some people just can’t get passed the appearance of certain foods, like OP I think haha. It’s all good tho
Picky eaters/ people fussy about food are the worst. Cant stand them. Seafood is delicious.
I have the same opinion and seafood all tastes like a funky armpit. I’ve tried and tried but most of it is fear factor level to me.
Omg 100% agree. When I look at a paella or any seafood pasta, and there’s shrimp antennae just mixing in with the sauce 🤢
Don’t get me started on oysters or clams. Gross.
FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT. Shrimp are literally roaches.
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Seafood is my fave food. It’s delicious.
I don't like seafood either but just because of the taste. I think you might be missing the fact that many cultures routinely eat bugs in their diet. From things like crickets and cricket flour to straight up roasted scorpions on a stick.
Easy: you just don't think about it.
Precisely why I can’t eat shellfish.
Mmmm sea roaches. Yummy. How do people eat any animal?
Hard shell blue crabs will really put the uninitiated off, but I grew up eating them, and think nothing of it. They're pretty wild to look at once cooked, but then when you tear off the top shell, the innards are pretty offputting to many - but not to me. It's all what you've eaten growing up. I know many cultures eat insects, and scorpions on a stick is a popular street food in some countries.
Blue crabs have the best tasting periods. I love that shit so much.
I also hate the fishy taste of much seafood but you put me in with sea bugs and I'll knock back wayyy too much.
They don't remove the innards? Ew!
Sorry...I don't eat much of the innards, but the sight of them alone disgust some people.
Depends on how it’s prepared. Restaurants often will but if you cook your own crabs fresh, you cook them whole.
I hope you are not eating the dead man's fingers (gills). That and the shell are the only parts that you are not supposed to eat.
Only because they don't taste good. I've seen a woman I worked with eat everything inside of the crab. I asked her about it, and she said she always ate everything. I eat the mustard on a saltine, and I used to eat the fat in the points of the shell, but don't anymore.
yummy sea bugs go brrrrrrr
You don’t tend to eat them when they’re all together still
I mean... A lot of crustaceans are closer to bugs than anything else. They taste so delicious though! Also I would totally be down to eat some bugs, cricket flour is supposed to taste pretty good....
Fun fact: Lobster used to be fed to prisoners because it was thought of like a disgusting bottom-feeding sea bug. The practice was ended because it was reasoned to be cruel and unusual.
At many points in our past food was scarce. If it makes a turd, you’re eating it.
I would eat actual insects if they cooked/prepared them in restaurants (and didn’t taste awful) as well 🤷🏻♂️
It’s all just protein.
I also have no aversion to trying or eating insects, as long as they are prepared properly. Food is food, life is short, I want to experience things even if others find it off or repulsive. Also, utilizing protein sources available to us can help lower food insecurity. But I have tried almost everything there is to try at this point. Some have been AMAZING. Some have been just ok.
See, I think the opposite: why are people so averse to eating bugs, when lobster or crab or shrimp are known to be delicious?
I've tried a few, like flavored crickets, and they've not been my thing (dried and roasted crickets, at least the ones I've had, have been bitter). But I would try others, because why not?
You have it backwards.
The appearance of sea animals is like insects. I cannot understand why then people don’t eat insects.
Plot twist: I also eat insects
Bugs look tastier than chickens do, the way they walk creep me out. Ever seen a sheep? People love that.
Funny, I get the exact opposite thing. Eating say, a cricket isn't a big deal to me because we eat sea bugs all the time and that's normal and delicious
Jokes on you, I would eat insects as well.
Sea animals? You must mean crustaceans.
To each their own.
Anything with a shell. Mmmm mmmm mmmm
Finally a true unpopular opinion
I agree. I can eat the flesh but the whole creature on my plate grosses me out.
Nothing gross about peeled and de-veined shrimp, the body and attached legs of a crab that's been cleaned and steamed, a lobster that's been prepared and split for serving, or a jumbo crayfish tail. Depending on where it was caught, how fresh it, how it's been prepared.
The buggy bits, the kind of thing we'd expect to see smeared on the windshield when a big bug gets smacked by it, are already gone by that time. Now, if you had a hand in the cleanup and prep, maybe you had to engage with crab gut, shrimp heads, all that stuff. But The cleanup is easy, and you can see immediate results, so it's easy to move past. At least for me.
I want to raise quail, eventually, in my backyard. But I already know that the kill, pluck, clean, and eat process won't be pleasant. Crab and shrimp, in particular, seem like a breeze in comparison to something with feathers that bleeds and has guts right in the middle instead of packed at one end or sitting on top of its locomotion system.
Are you from India , Bagladesh or Pakistan OP?
I heard from my Pakistani teachers all think that seafood looks like insects.
You need to join shrimpsisbugs immediately.
I can’t remember how to link a subreddit.
Shrimps is bugs!
It's all about perspective, isn't it? Like tackling a tough cleaning job, sometimes it's about seeing beyond the surface. Just like how some people find beauty in unexpected places, others find delight in the flavors of the sea. Diversity in taste, just like diversity in opinions, keeps things interesting!
People eat insects.
I never judge a food based on its looks. It's really that simple. I'll try everything at least once and decide if I want to eat it again.
You should consider attempting to branch out with your cuisine.
What about land animals? Loo
I’d eat a bug. There’s roasted crickets where I work, but it’s all flavors I wouldn’t eat, like cotton candy(I feel like crickets should be savory) and jalapeño, so I haven’t tried them yet
They actually call lobsters "bugs" in the south sometimes.
And yes, at least according to those survival shows, a lot of large meaty insects taste almost exactly like shellfish.
Crab and lobster genetically closer to insects than any land animal, and the meat reflects that.
To be honest I don't really care. I'm not really scared of any insects (besides wasps) off appearance alone so maybe I'm a lot more open to the idea of eating them. Whenever I do they're alright (depending on the bug of course).
Shellfish on the other hand are legitimately dangerous to eat in lots of cases so I've never tried them and never will.
I mean I've been to places where people eat crickets as snacks. Had some myself and they were pretty good.
The first laws regarding lobster iirc were that you weren’t allowed to feed your servants lobster more than twice a week.
I’m guessing this was before someone had the wherewithal to dip it in butter.
The hero we didn’t deserve, but we needed
The reason I don’t eat bugs is the ratio of meat to everything else. Typically when you think of eat bugs you’re eating it whole.
However when I eat something like shrimp, I’m not eating it full, shell and all, I’m eating a sizable piece of meat that’s been shelled and deveined.
If shrimp were much smaller and I were eating them whole, like people eat bugs, then yeah, I’d be pretty disgusted by the idea too. But since it just feels like any other piece of meat, it’s fine.
Firstly, I grew up in New England where Lobster is commonplace. Secondly, I've got no problems eating bugs. I've tried fried grasshoppers multiple times in Mexico.
They actually ARE insects of the sea... But they taste good and the texture is nothing like that of earth insects.
I feel the exact same! Except...
It makes me wonder why the hell it's so hard for most to eat Insects!
They can be crazy healthy!
And I have eaten them and love them!
So eat 'em both!!!
You know people eat insects right? Maybe you’re just a picky eater.
I'll still eat them. They look like bugs when ? Here's my upvote
Texture difference
Many people eat actual insects. So what?
They are insects and bugs just sea versions of them. They are delicious. Just like I am sure there are some bugs and insects in land that are delicious
Yeah, don't eat sea bonnies
I like em french fried mudbugs, mmhmmm.
Everything is disgusting in a certain sense. Sex is disgusting. Eating ANYTHING in general is disgusting. It's all a matter of perspective. More people on the planet eat actual bugs than dont, let alone seafood.
Lobster is the best
When you put it that way I now really want to eat more insects.
People at large used to see it this way until the late 19th century. Lobster used to be reserved only for slaves, apprentices, and the incarcerated. I’d have to do more homework as to what caused the change, but history (up until the last 150 years) seems to agree with you.
I can't eat crabs with the body still attached and the gross mouth parts, but I think I'd feel the same about most mammals too
Chopping up cute looking mammals and eating their bloody flesh doesn’t bother you though?
Can you provide an example? What “sea animals” and what bugs? I’ve never seen a bug that looks like a fish.
Taste good? Don't look bad when cooked? Good enough for me
this opinion brought to you by a person who's never been involved in any food making process.
people eat bugs too what’s your point
Some compost contains roadkill and animal shit so that's just as gross as eating bugs. You know what night soil is right?
Id scran a bug too tbf.
I don’t know, fried grasshoppers are delicious
Potatoes have eyes 👀
people eat actual insects aall the time too so
I mean, you're right, they're no different to bugs really. I've liked the land bugs I've tried eating though. Locusts were kind of nutty and crunchy. I want to try tarantula - very like crab apparently.
Bruh you’re complaining about shellfish when you don’t eat any meat/seafood anyway. You’ve missed the point entirely:
We eat sea critters because they’re fucking delicious.
Well first they catch them, clean them and season them. Then they boil or grill them and that’s how you eat them: they are best shared with friends.
Who said insects are not food ? Don't you have any survival training in case you get lost in the desert or woods ?
People who eat insects and bugs: heh heh. Awkward!
With sweet and sour sauce?
They are constantly in water that’s definitely not full of fish pee, poop, and cum. They have to be cleaner than gross land bugs.
I do love seafood though. I’ve heard the comparison but my mind really just doesn’t see them the same as bugs we experience on land.
Unpopular and based.
I love eel and shrimp, but I’m not thinking about what they look like when they’re alive as I’m eating them. When you eat a steak, bacon, hamburger, or whatever are you picturing the live animal or just enjoying your food?
THANK YOU! I’m like “no, I shall not have the Sea Spider Rangoon, thank you very much.”
Op only eats things that are cute according to them lol that’s such a stupid take omg
I eat ass so a starfish is close enough.
Agreed... And I'm from Maine, so I'm the oddball for it. I'm a vegetarian, but the idea of eating something that is still staring at me (think whole lobsters) that had to be cooked alive would squick me out even if I did consume other animals. I'd be a terrible carnivore as I'd basically live on hamburger meat and boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
Given how highly processed most American food is, I'm surprised we dont eat bugs (i understand that per the FDA we actually do eat some bugs, i mean as a primary ingredient). Like the pink slime that chicken nuggets are made out of, I have seen the videos and still eat chicken nuggets. I don't want crunchy legs in my food, but if it's been ground up to the point it's basically a fluid I don't get why there aren't cricket crunchies in the frozen food isle. I also don't care if bugs are raised in poor conditions either, so eating more bugs seems like a good idea and the more ethical option.
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