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If you are into exotic cuisines, you might be interested in sinking your teeth into some
fried armoured isopods with crunchy exoskeletons in Yokohama City, Japan. Come March 29 and
30, an aquarium in Yokohama City's Chinatown will be offering the chance to sample one
of these marine crustaceans during their event, called the 'Third Deep Sea Festival', reported
RocketNews24. There are 100 of these deep sea delicacies on offer at Yokohama Fun Aquarium,
including cooked deep sea sharks and hagfish. These marine crustaceans are known in Japan
as 'ogusokumushi', which literally means giant armoured bug. This is because isopods are
related to shrimps and crabs, yet they bear great resemblance to the common woodlouse
or pill bug, to which they are also related to. It was said to be first discovered in
Japan by a German in 1880 in the seas near Japan. They are thought to be abundant in
cold, deep waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. As they lurk in the depths
of the ocean, they tend to grow much bigger than members of the same species who live
in shallow water. The size of an isopod can be anywhere between 10 to 36 cm. What do they
taste like then? According to a Twitter user who commented on the aquarium's official Twitter
account, said the isopods taste like prawn or crab. RocketNews24 said that it tastes
"just like chicken". However, there are some concerns about eating them. A comment on RocketNews24
said: "Maybe it's just me, but isn't an aquarium supposed to be promoting conservation rather
than, you know, eating their exhibits?" Those who are keen on eating it don't know where
to start. A netizen commented on Japanese website fesoku.net: "Where to start eating??!!"