Monkey brains

Monkey brains is a dish consisting of, at least partially, the brain of some species of monkey or ape. In Western popular culture, its consumption is repeatedly portrayed and debated, often in the context of portraying exotic cultures as exceptionally cruel, callous, and/or strange.

It is unclear whether monkey brains have ever been served in a restaurant or whether the practice itself is an urban legend. While the legendary dish was historically a part of the Manchu Han Imperial banquet of the Qing empire, where it may have been eaten directly from the skull, modern day official Chinese policy with regards to the procurement of certain wildlife species makes the serving of monkey brains illegal, with sentences of up to 10 years in prison for violators. Additionally, initial confusion over a translated term for the edible mushroom hericium may have played a part in the belief, as this mushroom is called hóu tóu gū (simplified: ; traditional: ; lit. "monkey head mushroom") in Chinese.

Beyond Asia and into Africa, naturalist Angela Meder has described in Gorilla Journal a cultural practice of the Anaang people of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon, whereby a new tribal chief would consume the brain of a hunted gorilla while another senior member of the tribe consumed the heart. According to this account, the practice occurred only in the specific instance of a new chiefdom, as the killing of gorillas would otherwise be forbidden. This tradition was reported as deprecated by the beginning of the 21st century.

Consuming the brain and other nervous system tissues of some animals is considered hazardous to human health, possibly resulting in transmissible encephalopathies such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.

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