‘Dream ingredient’: alien-like isopod ramen dish made with a 14-legged deep-sea creature goes viral in Taiwan
- The Ramen Boy noodle bar in Taipei is now serving a limited-edition ramen dish made with giant isopods – a 14-legged deep-sea creature
- Online commenters have likened the crustacean to an alien, like the sort seen on ‘Star Trek’, while others have questioned whether they should eat it at all
A noodle shop in Taipei is now serving bowls of ramen topped with a giant isopod – a mysterious deep-sea creature that resembles large pill bugs or woodlice.
In a post on its official Facebook page, The Ramen Boy noodle bar in Taipei’s Zhongshan district introduced the limited-edition dish with excitement, starting off by saying how it had “finally obtained [its] dream ingredient” in reference to the giant isopod.
The 14-legged goliaths are normally found 500 metres (1,640 feet) or more below the ocean’s surface, and the specimens sourced by The Ramen Boy were fished from the waters surrounding Dongsha Islands, southwest of Kaohsiung City.
They are crustaceans that are distantly related to woodlice and can reach more than 30 centimetres (12 inches) from head to tail.
To prepare the giant isopod, the ramen shop opted to steam it after removing the stomach viscera.