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Jakarta Post

The male diet is under threat from zombie steaks

This is “The Guy Way” to prepare a healthy, raw vegetable dinner

Nury Vittachi (The Jakarta Post)
Bangkok
Sun, July 5, 2015

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The male diet is under threat  from zombie steaks

T

his is '€œThe Guy Way'€ to prepare a healthy, raw vegetable dinner. 1) Take raw vegetables from fridge. 2) Throw them in the bin. 3) Go out for a steak.

But be warned: some of the guy-est guy foods are in danger. Meats are going through '€œthe Zombie barrier'€ according to a reader who asks only to be identified as Riki.

He showed me the viral video circulating in the past few days showing a piece of raw beef throbbing and pulsating '€” despite being on a kitchen counter, ready for the pan.

It was linked to another viral video showing a beheaded cuttlefish rising from a seafood salad and dancing, despite not having a brain. (In this sense, cuttlefish are like human males, who also only dance when they have used a powerful chemical ('€œCarlsberg Special Brew'€) to cause temporary lobotomies (a Latin-derived medical term meaning '€œsurgical removal of the part of the head that prevents men behaving like bottoms'€).

Riki'€™s theory is that food is now so full of chemicals '€” especially in China, where the beef video came from '€” that you cannot kill it. It is '€œundead'€.

You can tear it to shreds but it will keep creeping back to life with terrifying relentlessness, a bit like Britney Spears'€™ career.

The video of the throbbing beef, filmed by '€œMrs. Cheng of Shandong'€ and spread by China'€™s CCTV, was fake, said a butcher quoted by Channel 9 news of Australia. He'€™s wrong.

In the interests of science, this columnist bought a zombie steak from a nearby wet market (it looked dead at first, but the butcher hit it with the back of his chopper to make it start pulsating), and it was pretty upsetting. '€œShh! It'€™s okay. I'€™m not going to hurt you,'€ I found myself lying to the plastic bag.

By the time I got home, it had stopped moving, and I wasn'€™t sure whether to mince it for burgers or organize a funeral with a choir and a selection of tasteful inter-faith readings.

Becoming a vegetarian may not be a complete answer. A reader who is a passionate vegan ('€œemotional person behaving as if she comes from the planet Vega'€) forwarded a recent article from the UK about farm vegetables showing curious behavior, with some '€œsinging'€ audibly. Cauliflowers are creaking and squeaking, while rhubarb is making a fizzing, popping noise. Scientists say it might be related to climate change.

She shared with me her puzzlement over how to be kind to vegetables. '€œIf you cook vegetables before you eat them, you'€™re boiling them alive '€” but if you consume them raw, you'€™re eating them alive,'€ she said. '€œWhich is worse?'€ I left her apologizing to a head of lettuce as she viciously tore off its leaves.

The only possible answer is to drop both meats and plants. That leaves us with an all-salt diet, which could get kind of boring after the first 30 seconds or so.

I opted for pasta. Here'€™s a useful note on '€œThe Guy Way of Estimating The Right Amount of Pasta to Cook.'€ 1) Guess the right amount of pasta to put into boiling water. 2) Wait for it to cook. 3) You were wrong.

Bon appétit.
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The writer is a columnist and journalist.

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