Video: ‘Dancing’ squid seems alive on plate; here’s why

A video making the rounds on the Internet shows a squid-topped dish. Soy sauce is poured on the squid and it begins flinging its tentacles. It even looks like it might be making a run for it at one point.

It can be disturbing when your dinner moves around.

Now Discovery Networks has an explainer (video above), telling why the squid -- which is indeed dead -- moves and whether the animal is feeling any pain. Both the video and the explainer are decidedly unappetizing, yet a little fascinating too.

Some of those who had seen the video, as the site notes, were disgusted by the apparent cruelty. So Discovery put it to a chemistry professor to explain. He said that although “brain function is missing,� newly deceased tissues still respond to stimuli.

As for pain, without a living brain, “it can’t process those sensory signals.�

Other food is eaten alive -- or nearly alive. Oysters, for instance. As Mother Nature Network says, oysters are considered healthiest when eaten raw on the half shell.

Live drunken shrimp, qiang xia, is soaked in alcohol and eaten while still moving, as seen on Shanghaiist.

And the Korean dish sannakji consists of pieces cut from a life hangul, or small octopus, and served immediately, often still squirming. It also may be served whole. The octopus may have its revenge, though. As the food site Delish notes: The still-active suction cups can get stuck in your throat, leading to possible asphyxiation.

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