Monkey brains

Monkey brain is a controversial delicacy, often attributed to the Chinese, but found in countries around the world. While it is not in contention that people eat monkey brains, the method of eating the brains fresh out of the skull of a screaming monkey is an urban legend that is almost certainly not true.

Some sources claim that certain restaurants serve it at a special table with a hole in the center. The monkey is tied up and the top of its skull removed with a knife. The animal, still alive, is placed under the table so its head serves as a bowl. Liquor is sometimes poured into the skull and mixed with the brain. The diners then proceed to scoop out parts of the brain, having chili and pickled ginger as condiments.

The practice allegedly has led to over-hunting, especially due to the belief that eating the monkeys' brain can cure impotence. Chinese government listed Yunnan golden monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) on the top protection list in 1977, but illegal hunting continued because the monkey's brain was considered a delicacy in some local cuisine.

Monkey brain appears on a menu listed in the text Man Han Quan Xi (Feast of Complete Manchu-Han Courses), intended for the imperial court in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty.

Paul Burrell, the former butler of Princess Diana, tells he was served monkey brains on banana leaves and coconut palms when visiting Saudi Arabia.

In the book Born Red, A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution author Gao Yuan described looking inside restaurant windows of Guangzhou that "offered the famous monkey brains, served at a special table that locked the monkey's head in place; the waiter would open the skull and the diners would eat while the body wriggled under the table."

It is not only humans who eat the brains of monkeys. The two species of chimpanzee, though generally vegetarian, are known to eat the brains of monkeys to obtain fat in their diet.

In popular culture

• Il Paese del sesso selvaggio (1972, also known as The Man from Shit). An Italian cannibal film directed by Umberto Lenzi that has a monkey brain scene, set in Burma.

• Faces of Death (1978). A staged scene shot in the Middle East, showing a group of people eating the dish in the traditional manner, complete with the table with a hole.

• Cannibal Holocaust (1980). A tribesman slices off a monkey's face and proceeds to eat the brains.

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Chilled monkey brains served as a dessert in India, which in reality, contradicts the reverence Hindus have towards monkeys due to mythological character Hanuman in the epic Ramayana and also the fact that a significant number of Hindus are lacto vegetarians. This movie was banned in India for its "racist portrayal of Indians and overt imperialistic tendencies".

• Clue (film) (1985). The dinner guests are served monkey brains as their meal, not revealed as such until close toward the end of the film.

• Elsewhereless (1998). A contemporary opera set in Africa featuring a live monkey brain scene.

• The Attic: Memoir of a Chinese Landlord's Son by Guanlong Cao (1998). In this memoir of life in Communist China, the author describes the eating of live monkey brains.

References

• Live Monkey Brains on maxent.org - an extensive, critical, annotated examination of the legend.
• Template:Harvard reference.
• Wildtrade — Monkey brains on the menu (from web.archive.org)
• Year of Monkey (includes a comment on monkey brain)
• Golden monkeys hope for survival in 'Year of Monkey'