Folks, sit down and buckle up, because this is some real through-the-looking-glass internet shit.
If you’ve been anywhere near the world wide web over the past few days, you’ve no doubt caught a glimpse of the ridiculous “medium rare chicken strips” post that has been doing the round of Facebook.
But for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here’s a refresher: A user by the name of Dakota Jean posted the image of what appears to be a one-way ticket to the splattering shits on January 9th, claiming that she had cooked chicken strips “medium rare,” and that they were, in fact, quite delicious.
The post subsequently went reasonably viral, and has been picked up over the past 12 hours by a number of news agencies, including the Daily Star and the Mirror in the UK.
The comments section on the post is littered with people expressing their disgust that someone could apparently be so silly as to willingly consume clearly not-cooked chicken, which in terms of western food customs is one of the biggest no-no’s, perhaps second only to “you don’t need to keep tomato sauce in the fridge you ice cold bitch.”
If the fact that the post contains “#vegan” wasn’t a big enough clue for you, we’ll confirm it for you: The post is a troll.
We know this to be true, because Dakota isn’t the first person to post the photo of the undercooked chook. Three days prior, on January 6th, another Facebook user by the name of Morgan Jane Gibbs posted the same photo. With the same joke caption attached.
And when we say “the same joke caption,” we mean “literally word-for-word.”
Hell, the posts even feature the same pun-based joke retort when people pointed out that salmonella was on the cards.
We’re not sure if Morgan Jane Gibbs’ post is the originator of the joke, but that’s where the trail goes cold. For the time being, consider her the proto-troll. The original prankster, if you will. Dakota’s post, however, was the one that went the widest.
The joke-thieving doesn’t end there, either. Scores of other practically identical posts have popped up in the wake of this rancid chook pic capturing everyone’s attention and turning stomachs worldwide.
We’re not saying you can’t have a laugh with your mates. It’s just that clicking share is so much easier than copy/pasting. So, so much easier.
But here’s the real kicker: The posts might be a deftly executed joke, but the photo of the food? That’s real. That’s a real meal. Someone really ate that.
While western food standards frown upon chicken being cooked anyway other than fully, in Japan it’s something of a different story.
The image used in the posts originally comes from a blog promoting tourism in Japan’s Shizuoka prefecture:
What you’re looking at there isn’t so much “medium rare chicken,” as it is more chicken tataki; chicken seared over hot coals and served largely raw. A dish prepared with the same techniques ordinarily used for fish in eastern cuisine.
Chicken tataki, as well as chicken sashimi (chook that’s served entirely raw) is available in certain Japanese restaurants. They get around the whole “UNCONTROLLABLE SHITTING” thing by sourcing chicken from local farmers who raise the birds in hygienic conditions, and ensuring the lowest amount of time between the bird being killed and the meat being served.
‘Course it’s a roll of the dice anyway, but the Japanese love nothing more than to live dangerously.
So there you have it, dear friends. Internet scuttlebutt: DEBUNKED.
Source: Facebook.
Photo: Facebook.
