There's a disturbing new trend in food these days: cannibalism. No, really.
First, a Japanese man cooked his own genetalia and served it at a public banquet to five people that paid $250 each for the privilege -- yes, you read that correctly. Then, a company begins to bottle and sell salt made by human tears. Next, a man in Miami named Rudy Eugene got fatally shot by police as he was chewing another man's face. He was high on bath salts and naked at the time.
The cannibalistic activity has hit South America, too. There are reports of "flesh pies" being sold in Brazil. Last month, police in Brazil arrested three people for alledgedly killing, and then eating, at least two women. One man and two women supposedly used the human flesh to create empanadas, and then sold them in a town named Garanhuns (and you thought the food trucks in NYC were sketchy!). Jorge Beltrao Negromonte, his wife, Isabel Cristina Pires, and his mistress, Bruna Oliveira da Silva -- the three suspects -- all belong to a religious sects that seeks to purify the world by reducing it's population.
But it doesn't end there. It's spread to Maryland, where Alexander Kinyua, 21, told police that he ate his Morgan State University roommate's entire heart and parts of his brain. The police were called after Kinyua's brother found a head and two hands, which belonged to Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, in his basement. Kinyua removed the remains, washed out the tin, and admitted to stabbing, dismembering, and eating Agyei-Kodie when questioned by police. He did not disclose a motive. Kinyua was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday.
Most recently, a researcher who had once worked at Switzerland's prestigeous Karolinska Instiutet cut his much younger wife's lips of and ate them, according to The Local, when he suspected that she was committing adultery. Her recovery is uncertain, and he will go through a psychiatric evaluation before he is charged. He ate the lips, sources say, because he didn't want them to be sewen back onto his wife's face. In this case, his motive was to defend his honor. Formal charges have not been filed yet, but he will likely be charged with aggravated assault.
Since laughter is often the best medicine, one restaurant has found the humor in the situation, if that's possible. As an homage to Miami's Rudy Eugene -- or perhaps his victim, Ronald Poppo -- a Brooklyn restaurant called Do or Dine created a sandwhich. They posted a photo on facebook, which has since been deleted, and the caption read, in part, "Presenting the Miami Openface with Smoked 'Bath Salts.'" Although a representative from the restaurant called the sandwhich "a bad and tasteless joke," he told Gothamist that it was the "culinary equivalent to an article in The Onion."
If, for some reason, you would like to partake in the cannibalism trend without actually hurting anyone, you can try Hufu -- The Human Flesh Alternative. It's made from tofu and flavoring, says Mark Nuckols, the Dartmouth business student who created the substance. ONe student described it as "tasty, but...disturbing."
Who knows what the next big food trend will be?