Feeling adventurous? This restaurant offers a 14-legged, deep-sea dwelling creature on its menu
Daring dish
The restaurant is serving a new ramen dish, the highlight of which is a 14-legged giant isopod — a distant cousin of crabs and prawns.
To make the 'delicacy', the isopod is steamed for about 10 minutes before, like a cherry on a cake, it is placed on top of a bowl of ramen and thick chicken, and fish broth.
Where can I get it?
If you are the proud owner of adventurous tastebuds, you can find the giant isopod ramen at 'The Ramen Boy', a restaurant in Taiwan's Taipei.
It costs 1,480 Taiwan dollars or about $48, but you will have to join a waitlist to eat the "dream ingredient."
Since the limited-edition noodle bowl was launched on May 22, more than 100 people have joined the waiting list to dine on the deep-sea creature.
What makes the giant isopod a 'dream ingredient'?
Well, that's how the restaurant promoted it on their social media. The May 22 post declared that the restaurant has "finally got this dream ingredient".
People seem to agree. Many have been queuing up — both to eat the giant isopod and click pictures with it.
Talking to Reuters, Hu, the 37-year-old restauranteur behind this dish says the dish is selling like hotcakes because "it looks very cute".
What does it take like?
One of the patrons at the restaurant described the taste as a cross between crab and lobster. The person further described the meat's texture as dense with some chewiness.
Do we know which species this deep sea creature is?
Taiwanese experts have flagged concerns. The creature has been identified as a species called "Bathynomus jamesi".
It is usually found deep in the ocean depths at about 170-2,140 metres (186-2,340 yards).
Is it safe to consume?
Scholars say that the species "Bathynomus jamesi" was officially recognised in Taiwan last year and that there is limited available data on it. They warn that the relatively unfamiliar species may potentially harbour toxins or heavy metals like mercury.
Huang Ming-chih, an associate professor specializing in deep-sea invertebrates at the National University of Tainan said that: "The best practice would be to do more research ... build a complete database and then allow people to eat, it would be better that way."
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