there's only one sure way of making sure a frog is dead. its tongue has to stick out before you are sure that it has passed on. gross shit. the fastest and cleanest way to kill a frog is to bash its head hard. sounds easy but it isn't. each of us sad trainees were given a choice: kill a frog or an eel. the frogs were a lot harder. for most ppl, their first downward stroke with the frog in hand will be too gentle and merely concuss the poor amphibian and as they feel more freaked out by the soon-to-be-dead frog, they begin to use more force and finally smash the frog's brains to bits. ( there were some cases where the overexcited frog-murderer used excessive force and found mashed-up organs when he cut open the carcass later) next, they skinned the frog and cut it open, clearing the internal organs and intestines. we boiled the frog with our mess tins and it tasted really good. i mean it was totally fresh and it was exactly like frog legs served in restaurants. DELICIOUS.

i decided to go for the eel but killing it wasn't exactly a piece of cake. when i first grabbed it, i was really freaked out. i could feel it writhing in my grasp, its muscles straining before it escaped. the record time is held by bala who took 15 min before he managed to grab the eel and bring it to the chopping board. mark was obviously terrified of the eel. he grabbed it and ran straight for the table. when he raised the chopper, he was shaking and the eel was already wriggling out from under its fingers. i couldn't really keep an grip on mine either. on the way to the table, it escaped and i had to chase it as it slithered madly along the grass and sand and dirt until it eventually tired itself and stopped. the chopping was easy if disturbing. i cut the head off with a clean stroke but the damn head kept twitching the whole time i was trying to remove the intestines from the dead eel which was having muscle spasms too. we cooked the eel too but didn't try it. Ewww - unagi without sause disgusting.

the instructors also showed us some video clips of past batches where they actually killed a turtle! it was really cruel. they used pincers to pull the turtle's head out and we were quite surprised cos its neck could really stretch. after which, he snipped the head off easily. blood juz kept pouring out. it was totally sick. step 3: cut open the turtle's shell. i used to think the turtle's body was separate from its shell i.e. it was juz for protection but when he pulled open the cut portion of the shell, we could see the internal organs were like fused to the shell. there probably wasn't much meat to be found anyway. juz felt it was really against nature to kill a turtle since they are like so defenceless and passive and long living.