When Your Food Stare Back At You

[Panic57]

I know that the head of the fish is the tastiest but I can't stand to have my food stare at me. I don't have that fear of holes, but eyes. I just can't shake the ideas that it's staring at me judging me for eating it. I usually end up covering the fish head or animal head with a piece of lettuce or that decorative leaf they always use. Then I'll have nightmares for a week about the eyes staring at me. I was eating this really delicious Vietnamese dish, that I can't pronounce that is made out of fish heads and other pieces. It was a great little authentic restaurant and I went with fiends but I ended up vegetarian for the rest of the month because I kept seeing eyes. Don't get me started on the restaurants that serve duck and chicken with the head attached. I understand ti's delicious, but why...? I just, am I the only one creeped out with your food looking at you?


I'm saying this but I've been fishing, I've cut off the head of a fish and that doesn't bother me. But there is something about cooked food with eyes that creeps me out. It's just not logical. I wonder it stems off my fear of inanimate objects looking at me. I didn't play with dolls or have pictures of people on my walls for similar reasons. I

 

[thecorinthian]

Do you feel guilty when you stare at their eyes? Sometimes when I look at my own food with the head still attached I don't think about the guilt I think about how lucky I am to know where my food came from and how fresh it is. A freshly caught fish doesn't have red eyes and that's how Asians serve their fish to show this freshness to their customers. A pig or cow's head is something else entirely for me though because it has so much identity that I too cannot stand eating livestock with eyes served in front of me. The head of an animal is such a taboo in certain societies that they're cut off and the other parts are pre-packaged in plastic for our supposed 'ethical' consumption.

 

[kelden]

I also find the fish dead stare quite unsettling when eating one. Thereby I prefer fried fish dishes instead of more raw, It doesn't have the stare anymore since its eyes are actually charred. It also tastes better, but this is a matter of preference.

 

[Alex]

I'm vegetarian, but it still freaks me out when my parents buy a whole fish or pigs or chicken feet. I sometimes help them dispose of the 'bits' into the food recycling and I feel a bit weird and sad. The last thing I gave up was fish when I saw saw some swimming around in a tank in a museum, and that turned me into a vegetarian as a teenager and I have never looked back since.

 

[Laneorexorcist]

I haven't heard from something like this before reading this post, and I think that I do not suffer from this phobia but it's still really interesting.


But still, when I was little and my mom used to give fish to us, especially the fried one, and the eyes were always the weird part of the fish, the look in their eyes was always so empty and that was kind of creepy, but I guess that it wasn't something that bothered me too much.

 

[Panic57]

Do you feel guilty when you stare at their eyes? Sometimes when I look at my own food with the head still attached I don't think about the guilt I think about how lucky I am to know where my food came from and how fresh it is. A freshly caught fish doesn't have red eyes and that's how Asians serve their fish to show this freshness to their customers. A pig or cow's head is something else entirely for me though because it has so much identity that I too cannot stand eating livestock with eyes served in front of me. The head of an animal is such a taboo in certain societies that they're cut off and the other parts are pre-packaged in plastic for our supposed 'ethical' consumption.

I don't feel guilty just disturbed. The pigs head, I have to cover the eye sockets completely with either lettuce or a napkin, and then i can eat it just fine. It's just unnerves me to have food with eyes on it. Though I do appreciate that a chef is showing the freshness of the fish in the dish when they serve the food as a whole and the food is usually delicious, just creepy.

 

[rz3300a]

Well I do not really find myself with any heads of anything that I eat, but I have had it before and it is a little eerie. It is just one of those things that you do not really think about when you just eating it like it is a meal that you eat everyday, but it was a living thing and this is just that little reminder of that. Makes me pause just a second, and then it is back to business.

 

[amy88]

I definitely couldn't eat something with eyes staring at me - that to me would be super off-putting.


I also don't get the restaurants where you can pick out your own (living) fish that's swimming around in a tank and they'll cook it up for you - that to me is a little close for comfort...I couldn't pick out a fish that was one minute swimming around and the next expected to be my lunch or dinner...

 

[misszerable]

Oh wow, I think I just posted the same thing in another thread. Thanks for sharing this, it assured me that I am not alone! I'd turn the fish head around so that I won't have to see the dead fish stare. At home, I'd cut the head so I don't have to see. One time, a hitchhiker accidentally left about 7 pieces of crabs in the back compartment of my dad's car. The crabs were still alive and moving about. We can't bear to cook the crabs alive. In fact, we just let them die and never cooked them at all. 

 

[calicer1996]

That's the reason I went vegan. Rice and potato is all ya need! I couldn't live with myself after realizing the fact how these animals were treated before they became our food. I am ashamed of it.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

No, I don't have any problems with fish staring at me from the plate. To me, it's food. That's all. It's something to be eaten. In fact, the part around the fish eye is very tasty. It's considered a delicacy. Usually, it's cooked as Fish Head Curry. A whole big fish head is cooked in a curry. It's delicious. The flesh around the gills is also very soft and sweet.

 

[Choochoo]

I have this feeling too but even when I just eat meat in general because recently I've been becoming more and more aware of what I am eating. Previously since everything just came cut up and packaged I never really thought about it and I think it is the case for most people, but lately I've been getting more and more uncomfortable with knowing that I am eating something that was alive and probably slaughtered without much thought or care as if they were just inanimate objects. Because of that I've been considering turning vegetarian more and more each day. 

 

[TheKnight]

I can never eat an animal's entire face. I once received a chicken head in my soup and it completely ruined my appetite. I don't care how good it is but I'm not eating anything with a face. A real animal's face, of course. I'll definitely eat the meat from the face if it's peeled off first then served to me but I won't eat it right off the face. Heck, I don't think I'd eat anything that looks like feet or snout. I basically just don't want to see any animal features. It isn't about guilt either but I'm not sure.