Would you sacrifice your testicles, stomach fat or ears for high-class cuisine? A soon-to-open Berlin restaurant wants diners to do just that: donate body parts to be turned into gourmet meals according to the practices of Amazonian cannibals.
In an advertising campaign on the internet, in newspapers and on television, the restaurant, Flime, appeals for donors and diners to join a new culinary movement.
“Members declare themselves willing to donate any part of their body,” the advertisement reads, adding that the restaurant will cover hospital costs and wants to hire an “open-minded surgeon”.
The location of the restaurant — if it exists — is a secret, as is the owners’ identity.
On its menu Flime suggests traditional Brazilian dishes such as bolinho — “fried tatar balls with a sweet-sour dip” and feijoada, “pieces of meat with black beans and rice”. It does not specify the meat used.
It cites as its inspiration the Waricaca tribe, which once practised “compassionate cannibalism” — eating parts of a loved one as part of the Âmourning ritual.
The campaign has provoked outrage. Michael Braun, vice-chair of Berlin’s Christian Democrat party, said he had received calls for the restaurant to be banned. “It’s disgusting; not long ago a Berliner was murdered by a cannibal.”
Braun was referring to computer technician Bernd Jurgen Brandes, who, in 2001, volunteered himself to self-confessed cannibal Armin Meiwes.
Experts believe cannibalism has 800 German followers, only a few of whom have actually eaten human flesh. —