Ever since I was a boy I found myself disgusted by shrimp. Not just shrimp but any crustacean in general, save crabs. This didn’t start til at a Chinese restaurant I, for the first time, encountered a shrimp with both its legs and eyes still attached. It was a strange feeling realizing i hadn’t been eating just some small part of the creatures before, but the entirety of them. I remember the feeling, looking in the vat of unpeeled shrimp, their cold unfeeling eyes staring back at me. Of course there was a second inciting incident, this one putting me off of lobster. While I sat and ate a lobster in my home, my older sister came up to me and said “you realize those are basically giant cockroaches right, they’re basically cousins. And as I thought about this I could no longer bring myself to eat. Not because what she said was simply disgusting, but because the closer I looked at the lobster the more I saw the similarities. Long antennae, a segmented body, but worst of all the legs. The small legs on the lobster looked so similar to those I had seen on cockroaches in times past.
Of course, as the years have gone by I haven’t let this repulsion prevent me from partaking in the occasional lobster roll or shrimp dish. This story really begins when I decided to take a gamble in a related sense, trying a seafood stew at a restaurant I had never been to before. I received an email on august 3rd. The email had not been filtered by my junk folder, so I opened it up. It was from a new restaurant opening pretty close to me. The name of the restaurant “Taste of China,” continued a naming trend I had seen in chinese restaurants near me, of which there were many, in part due to me living close to a historically Chinese area. The body of the message was about a soft launch, taking place a week from when the email arrived. It said it was a somewhat exclusive event, which struck me as odd, as it didn’t seem the type of place to be hosting something like that, but more so because I didn’t realize why I had gotten an invitation. Of course I occasionally reviewed restaurants on yelp and ate at any new place that opened around me, as well as several older ones, but it still didn’t explain why they chose me, or how they got my email. Still, the pictures they had sent as attachments looked downright amazing, which was not the norm for this type of establishment. I decided to go.
When I got there the first thing that struck me was how unlike other Chinese restaurants it was. The decor was dark and modern, something I saw more often in Japanese or fusion fare. Where many Chinese restaurants had large tables and were in big open spaces, this one seemed to be narrow, the aisles next to the booths hardly large enough to allow passage. Also the booths were an unusual choice and were also a bit small and cramped. I thought I’d leave this as feedback, maybe asking them to scoot the booths back a foot or two, or even considering some tables. Anyway, the menu too was a little weird. Where i was used to a litany of different items and meats this place had only two section. Appetizers, with 3 choices and entrees, with an additional three choices. At the time I assumed it was just because of the soft launch, but now I realize it’s strange how finished the menus seemed. Anyway of the choices the one that seemed the best to me was one called “seafood stew” this had been shown on the website and looked delicious, a beautiful dark red dish, with tempting pieces of white flesh poking out of the liquid. I ordered this along with two appetizers and a drink, I think dumplings and a bun, though I can’t remember exactly. The stew came out in a large pot, still boiling. To say the stew was phenomenal would be an understatement. The shrimp and lobster were good, but whatever fish they had added was amazing. Even as an avid connoisseur of food and someone who had tried many dishes this one was a cut above the rest. It exceeded even the two Michelin star restaurants I had visited, the crowns of my restaurant visiting experience. The flavor was savory in a way I hadn’t known seafood had to be, and the sauce was excellent as well. But the thing that kept me eating was that fish, the white meat a flavor unlike anything else I had ever eaten. The only thing I disliked was the shells. Either some of the shrimp or lobster shells had been added into the stew, and their appearance was off putting, they had a dark color I had never seen in a shrimp or lobster before and they also had long twisting spines. Still, even with this small caveat it remained the best meal I had ever eaten, bar none.
When I finished up and paid the check, I got up to head to the bathroom. I asked the waiter where it was and he told me it was the door on the right at the end of the hall. I passed through the narrow corridors, which seemed to be slightly too long, going further than I thought possible. When I reached what I assumed was the bathroom I entered. I realize my mistake now. I thought he had said, the door right at the end of the hall.
What greeted me was a sight I’ll never forget. First I saw the tub. The wall was lined with similar tubs, but this one sat open, near a counter. It was full of water, but still, underneath something could be made out. The wriggling of a large mass of creatures. I stood there transfixed for a moment, before remembering that some restaurants do use live ingredients. Then I saw a middle aged man, with almost too white of skin reach in and pull one of the creatures out. As he pulled it out I saw its black chitinous body, shining in the light. He continued to pull and it continued to come out, its segmented body now visible to me. The thing was some type of centipede. It had hundreds of long multi segmented legs, all wriggling in the air as the man pressed its head on the cutting board, eliciting a strange high pitched shriek, and then brought his cleaver down with a sickening crunch, cutting the screech off entirely. The legs continued to wriggle for a moment before falling still. The man pulled the rest of its body out of the tub. What I assumed was a mass of wriggling creatures had in reality been one long organism. The thing had to have been 20 feet long, the way its body kept coming out as he pulled more and more out. Next to him I saw the same pot and dark broth I had been served for dinner. As I felt the dish I had eaten for dinner rising in my throat, I turned quickly and ran to the door across the hall, this time correctly finding the unlabeled bathroom. I emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet, disgusted and scarred by what I had seen. I went home after that. After paying my bill. I asked the waiter what the seafood stew had been made of. He gave me a puzzled look, before replying, “shrimp, lobster, and fish,” the same thing it had said on the menu.
When I got home i started researching. There was such a thing as an aquatic centipede but nothing so long, and nothing with legs as long as the one I had seen. A month later I drove by the storefront, hoping to catch a glimpse of that too pale man who had been working in the back, but when I drove by it all that I saw was an empty storefront, the sign and furniture all removed.