Did A NYC Restaurant Really Serve Human Flesh?
The human brain can be a devilish place at times, especially when it's conjuring up the most aggressive of food cravings. Be it potato chips, pizza, or copious amounts of alcohol, these insatiable desires always take form on the unhealthiest of snacks. Why can't the brain demand a hearty salad for a change?
One of the craziest eating habits, as seen in horror movies, is that of humans eating other humans. Despite a common belief that cannibalism is an obscure addiction suffered only by Hannibal Lecter, the practice is known to have taken place in centuries gone by and is still thought to be occurring today within tribes in India and Papua New Guinea (via Live Science).
Cannibalism could never happen in a modern day and, of course, highly sophisticated society though, right? Not according to a claim that spread uncontrollably across the internet, announcing that a restaurant in New York received a license allowing it to serve human meat. However, like so many things on the web, the truth was somewhat different (via Snopes).
Thorough research shut down the theory of New York's cannibalistic cuisine
An article posted by Empire News suggested that a newly opened restaurant in New York City had successfully lobbied officials for permission to sell human flesh on its menu. The report claimed that the eatery — called SKIN — would cook meat sliced from donated bodies. That's something that really would make your skin crawl.
Although a seemingly bold move, even in NYC, said claims turned out to be completely untrue, according to Snopes. Even though the post was picked up by another website, the Snopes investigation concluded that the claim was satirical and didn't have a leg to stand on (not least because its author was named "Bob The Empire News Potato").
Although the flesh restaurant has been dismissed as actual fake news, perhaps the article would have fooled more people in China. National Geographic observes that eating other humans is not considered an inappropriate subject in China and past famines forced people to resort to cannibalism to survive.