what does human flesh taste like?

Hello Hungryi,

Of course you'll hardly come across someone serving you a first-hand
experience of Cannibalism -- the eating of human flesh by humans, also
known as anthropophagy. But the following should give you good
insights:

Quote Theroux from "Fine Old Cannibals" by D. Trull
http://www.parascope.com/articles/slips/fs27_1.htm
""It was a theory of mine that former cannibals of Oceania now feasted
on Spam because Spam came the nearest to approximating the porky taste
of human flesh," Theroux wrote in The Happy Isles of Oceania. "'Long
pig' as they called a cooked human in much of Melanesia. (...) And in
the absence of Spam they settled for corned beef, which also had a
corpsy flavor.""

When Michael Krieger, author of "Conversations with the Cannibals -
The End of the Old South Pacific" was asked what human flesh tastes
like, he responded:
http://www.salon.com/12nov1995/humor/cruickshank2.html
"Some said it really didn't taste like any other meat, and others said
that it tasted somewhat like chicken or beef, but not exactly."

To quote Jeremy MacClancy from Gary Allen's elaborate and well worth
reading "What is the flavor of human flesh?":
http://www.orst.edu/food-resource/kelsey/allen.html
"From all accounts, human meat is very sweet."

Even others say human flesh tastes "peculiar" [1] or "something like
monkey meat" [2]. (The latter being underlined in Garry Allen's
article as well by anthropologist Jack Petrie.) Fiction makes us
believe its "unforgettable" [3] and "delicious" [4], especially to the
darker souls.

Let me quote New York Times reporter William Bueller Seabrook from
Allen's article, who opposes what he calls the "long pig" legend:
http://www.orst.edu/food-resource/kelsey/allen.html
"It was like good, fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef.
(...) It was mild, good meat with no other sharply defined or highly
characteristic taste such as for instance, goat, high game, and pork
have. (...) The roast, from which I cut and ate a central slice, was
tender, and in color, texture, smell as well as taste, strengthened my
certainty that of all the meats we habitually know, veal is the one
meat to which this meat is accurately comparable. As for any other
special taste or odor of a sort which would be surprising and make a
person who had tasted it not knowing exclaim, 'What is this?' it had
absolutely none."

But do cannibals just enjoy the taste, or is this behavior triggered
by other reasons? Quote Occultopedia:
http://www.occultopedia.com/c/cannibalism.htm
"Sometimes there was simply limited food. Some groups liked the taste
of human flesh. But mostly the reasons had to do with revenge or
punishment for crimes, ceremony and ritual, or magic."


Hope this answers it!


Quotes:

[1] ABCNEWS.com
    http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/bar-jonah010102.html

[2] sci.antrhopology, Re: Taste of Human Flesh
    http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/usenet/sci.anthropology/archive/january-1995/0028.html

[3] Slave Of The Cannibal God (1978)
    http://www.geocities.com/fulcimetaljacket/slaveofcann.html

[4] Trouble Every Day (2001)
    http://www.monstersatplay.com/trouble.shtml


Worthwile movie to check out (based on a true story):
    Alive (1993)
    http://us.imdb.com/Title?0106246
    "Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the snow swept
    Andes are forced to eat each other to survive
    after a plane crash"


Search terms:
    cannibal "taste of human flesh"
    "conversations with the cannibals" book

well done! (pun intended)

like chicken?????

I can't give you any references, but I've always understood that human
beings taste very salty, which is why wild animals who start eating
them tend to get a taste for it. And I believe that the cannibals of
New Guinea used to consider the hands to be the best "cut" -
especially the fleshy bit at the base of the thumb. Mmmm!