Warning. This article contains information about a practice that may be considered animal cruelty in some cultures and contains links to photographs that may cause distress. Readers of a gentle disposition may not wish to read further.

The art of the competitive dinner party is alive and well with hosts and hostesses constantly looking for new and extraordinary dishes to serve which will make their social occasion stand out from the crowd. One dish that is guaranteed to get the aspiring social climber noticed is not only highly illegal in some countries, but possibly mythical.

Origins

The story usually goes that adventurous explorers are served this outlandish dish in a far-off country. Quite often the setting is Malaysia or Indonesia or the Philipines, but usually it's in China. This gives the story an authentic feel as even the Chinese themselves admit to eating anything with four legs that isn't a table.

How To

The traditional description goes as follows:



Diners are invited to sit around a table with a hole cut in the centre. A live monkey is then brought in and strapped underneath the table with the top of the skull poking through the hole. The guests are given a small hammer and invited to strike the monkey's head to crack the skull. Rather in the fashion of breaking the shell of a hard-boiled egg. Once the skull is cracked, the chef moves in to deftly cut off the top of the skull to reveal the brains beneath. Diners then tuck in with gusto. Surprisingly perhaps, it is not reported to be a particularly tasty dish. It is described as being like 'water tofu' and liberal quantities of ginger and chilli are added to give it bite. At some point in the procedure, the monkey dies. A detailed description of one diner's experience can be found in the Hong Kong newspaper Hong Kong Daily

Fact or Fiction

Crucially, the story always seems to have happened to a friend. There are no reliable first hand accounts. However, live monkey brains have been described in Chinese culture for hundreds of years and it is quite possible that somewhere, at some time, they were regarded as a delicacy. There was a menu called 'The Manchu-Han Complete Banquet' from the 18th-Century Quin Dynasty which describes live monkey brains. The menu itself has been lost but it is referred to in numerous other sources. There is also a book titled 'ManTuoLuo Xuan XianHua' ('Casual Chat on Mantuolou's Veranda'), written by Zhang HaiOu in the mid-19th century which is a collection of traditional Chinese medicines and local delicacies that refers to the ultimate head food.

Far more common is the use of dried, preserved or cooked monkey brains as a medicinal aid in the treatment of impotence. Bodybuilders have also been known to partake in the hope of increasing growth levels, allegedly with mixed results. Eating brains can actually be bad for your health as the brain contains harmful proteins called prions, which have been linked with diseases such as Kuru and Fatal Familial Insomnia. FFI is a particularly tiresome way to die as it involves the sufferer enduring a period of seven to eighteen months of constant insomnia before death.

The idea of eating brains, live or otherwise, has been used in many horror stories and famously in the Hollywood movie 'Hannibal' as well as 'Elsewhereless', 'Monkey Brain Sushi', 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' and the video nasty 'Faces of Death'. It has also been utilised in an Italian pornography film, 'Il Paese del sesso selvaggio'.

Fish is often referred to as brain food, but that is something completely different.