Wohoo... reminds me of the time I went to this resturant in
Hainan Dao I managed to watch them prepare the hapless animals for
the table. First the eel... They take the life eel, dump the
slippery critter on the chopping board, and before it knows what is
coming, give it several brutal chops with the chopper to dice it
into bite size pieces... The eel of course, does not die
immediately. In fact you actually see the individual severed
segments of the eel still attatched by a silver of skin on the
underside convulse and contract violently as the entire animal goes
into spasms after having its spine severed in multiple
areas...
Not too long after, it is on your plate and looking quite
tasty.
I also see how they prepared the fish, this dump the
relaxing-one-corner fish from the basic, and start giving it brutal
blows the the head with a wooden mangle, you can actually hear the
"tump!" "tump!" from quite far away as the blows fall on the
animal, smashing its face and causing it to bleed from the eye and
mouth. Moments later it is served as well.
Finally I saw how they made sure the crab was relly fresh. They
just took the entire animal, and dumped it into the bin of boilling
water. You can actually see the animal struggle and swim to the
surface in a desperate attempt to escape before its struggles
become weaker and it finally dies.
Chinese traditional cooking is all about speed and efficency rather
then being humane... but it sure is tasty.
