Eating carp while the fish is still alive is a Chinese delicacy. But it's not the only morally dubious dish on world menus

The Chinese have come in for some flak over their eating habits after a video was posted on YouTube showing diners eating a part-fried, still-breathing, carp. Chefs kept the fish alive by wrapping its head in a wet cloth, before covering its half-cooked body in an unspecified sauce. The video ends with shots of the diners picking apart the still-moving fish with chopsticks. It's not most people's idea of a meal out – but if you are in to extreme eating, there are plenty more morally dubious taster menus.

▶ Live octopus The Koreans take sushi to its logical conclusion. The art is to grab an octopus around the body, dump the head in a sauce and then eat whole. You are advised to put the head end in your mouth first, as the trailing, wriggling tentacles can get up your nose.

▶ Monkey brains Restaurants in China and Malaysia serving fresh monkey brains, spooned out of the skull, may be an urban legend – although there are enough references in literature to suggest the practice is not entirely fictional. But raw and cooked brain of dead monkey is widely consumed in the far east.

▶ Still-beating snake heart US macho chef Anthony Bourdain popularised this dish in his book A Cook's Tour in which he proved just how "hard" he was by travelling the globe eating exotic animals. He missed out on the giant panda but washed down the still-beating heart of a cobra with rice wine and snake blood.

▶ AA Gill A particular delicacy among members of the baboon family. Does not include brain or beating heart.