It's a question that might come up late at night, either as an adult when you've had too many, or as a child on a sleepover. What exactly would human flesh taste like? No one really wants to find out, because it's just a horrific idea, and well, it usually involves someone coming to a violent end. But that hasn't stopped people asking the question, or that friend of a friend who insists he read somewhere that it tastes just like chicken.
However, there is one man who knows exactly what it's like to eat human meat - and not just any human meat, but his own flesh. If you can get over your gag reflex and read on, you'll find out exactly why.
Originating in a Reddit post, this man revealed that he ate a portion of his own leg - after it was amputated. He let users ask him anything they wanted, but it was once VICE reached out to him that the full story came to light.
38-year-old user IncrediblyShinyShart, who has chosen to remain anonymous, shared the story of how he was involved in a motorcycle crash. His bike was hit by another car, which completely shattered his foot. He was told he would never walk again and was given the option to amputate. Not only did he say yes to the amputation, but he asked if he could keep the limb.
Three weeks later, the man put his absurd plan into action. On Sunday, July 10, 2016, he invited 10 of his friends over for food. They ate quiche puff pastries, fruit tarts, chocolate cake, and apple strudel. They washed it all down with gin lemonade punches and mimosas. Then came the main course: fajita tacos, made from the severed limb.
Apparently, Idaho is the only US state that actually has a law against the act of eating human flesh. It's illegal to buy or sell human meat, desecrate a corpse, and of course - murder, but when it's your own foot, who's going to stop you? In fact, this may be the only reported case where cannibalism was both legal and completely ethical - with the man in question giving his consent and even joining in on the fun.
Originally, 'Shiny' wanted to have it frozen or taxidermied, but eventually decided that "It's a part of me, and I want it back". Eventually, he decided to cast it in plaster to use as a doorstop, but decided to remove some of the muscle first - wrapping it up and chucking it in the freezer.
"I thought, 'This is probably the peak weirdness of my life. I hope it doesn’t get weirder than this'," he told Vice. "After we cast the leg, I took a bunch of pictures, put it in a box of flowers, and cremated it."
Then it came time to invite his friends.
"I said something like, 'Remember how we always talked about how, if we ever had the chance to ethically eat human meat, would you do it? Well, I’m calling you on that. We doing this or what?' Ten said yes. I guess we’re a weird group."
One friend asked her boyfriend, a chef, to do the cooking.
"He marinated it overnight and sauteed it with onions, peppers, salt, pepper, and lime juice," Shiny explained. "Then he served it on corn tortillas with a tomatillo sauce." His description of the preparation process sounds kind of tasty, as long as you forget it's human meat we're talking about here.
According to Shiny, this is how his leg tasted:
"This particular cut was super beefy. It had a very pronounced, beefy flavor to it. The muscle I cut was tough and chewy. It tasted good, but the experience wasn’t the best."
It seems like Shiny and all his friends have a particularly dark sense of humour, as he remarked that he thought to himself "today was the day I was inside 10 of my friends at once," while a friend rang him the following day to tell him: "Hey, just so you know, I pooped you out. Sorry."
Somehow, Shiny has managed to stay positive throughout the whole ordeal. Despite losing his leg, he said that the accident made him realise how he didn't properly appreciate his life or those around him:
"The outpouring of compassion and empathy I received from my friends and my loved ones really helped me take on the challenge of this big change in my life. So I was taking care of this body part that took care of me for so long. I was paying homage to it and giving it a proper send-off.
"Eating my foot was a funny and weird and interesting way to move forward."
I've got to say, in his position I probably wouldn't do the same - but it seems to have worked out for him.
H/T: Vice
