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Comment by mustafa_pasi | Hacker News Reader

I don't get the appeal or raw protein. I tasted it all, raw eggs, raw fish, raw beef and it all just does not taste very good, not as good as the cooked variant.

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It's quite literally a matter of taste.

I enjoy these so my perspective:

* raw beef (tartare): the taste of raw beef "makes sense" if you like rare steak. It's a very full umami flavour quite unlike most food.

* sushi: raw salmon on nice sticky rice might as well be beef.. cake. It's buttery, breaks apart in your mouth, sweet without actually being sweet.

* salted pork: very good also, the salt and fat go together well, i usually eat this with something sweet.

* eggs: I don't do raw eggs either.

For reference, I've eaten and prepared a lot of different kinds of meat in my life (smoked, dried, grilled, fried etc.) so eating it raw is only a small leap away.

Cooked salmon, like cooked oyster (without condiments) actually stinks. Only the raw version makes sense.

* raw pork: Mett is pretty popular in Germany and not a fine dining thing (at all). It is IMO best with extra onion.

* raw beef: Filet américain is basically a spicy beef tartare, available in most supermarkets in Belgium and the Netherlands.

I can recommend both of these to carnivores :)

Raw grass carp cut into thin transparent slices: chewy, sweet but not overwhelmingly, with lots of fresh flavors, very good for salad but you should not eat it anyway as it can contain liver fluke

Raw shrimp: crunchy and fresh, not as sweet as fish

Sushi grade raw egg available in my region: the white is smell-less slime with a tiny little bit of taste, the yolk has a mellow sweetness, I can understand why Japanese pair it with rice.

I don't eat eggs by themselves either, but I quite like the raw egg yolks that are often served as a companion to beef tartare.

Where I have (so far) drawn the line is raw tripe, which I've occasionally encountered on the menus of Ethiopian restaurants (I'm a big fan of Kitfo, their take on beef tartare). But I'm not a huge fan of cooked tripe either.

There's nothing to "get". It's personal taste. What's your comment trying to say?

Agree with you but also find animal protein to be pretty gross in general as well (having some experience with meat production). I can see how it's an acquired taste, though. Was eating/cooking dinner (including fish) with some friends a while back and a friend who is from Japan mentioned "I can't believe you're cooking that fish" which always made me laugh a bit.

Well I’ve tried raw protein in whiskey sours(raw egg), sushi of various species(raw fish), and beef tartare and laab(raw beef) and enjoyed it all.

I guess the truth is at an impasse given our opposing anecdata.

I don’t like most raw food I’ve tried, but I do like raw salmon.

Agreed though smoked salmon is pretty nice imo.

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