When I first saw the Mantis Shrimps encaged in PET bottles in a seafood eatery in Kota Kinabalu, I got quite angry and cursed the “animal-cruelty of the Asians”. I imagined they grow them in the bottles because – how would they otherwise fit through the small bottle-neck? This is how they grow pears in bottles. Later, I drew comparisons to conditions in European industrial farming (remember the widespread and highup-justified Kastenstand / gestation crate for pigs?), and the base of my furor and the height of my moral perch calmed at least a bit.
Three weeks later, in Semporna, at the east coast of Saba, I waited in front of a Chinese Seafood restaurant with the same bottle-encaged Mantis Crabs, and talked withe the old Chinese owner. She spoke good-enough English, having worked in London as a DimSum cook. So I asked her if she grows them in the bottle. The answer disappointed me – about myself. They put the Mantis Crabs in a cut-open bottle after they catch then because – they are quite dangerous. Nobody wants to loose a finger handling them. They can punch or sting.
So what did I do then? I came back in the evening and had dinner. I ate one. So this was settled. Predator vs predator. I won. Tasted quite good, close to lobster. 50 Ringgit. Thank you.
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