Updated on 13 October 2026. The original 2006 post is kept below.
Myth, movie prop or real dish?
Monkey brains are more famous than they are eaten. Most people “know” the dish from Hollywood: the dessert course in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) did a lot of heavy lifting. The shocking scene in the 1978 film Faces of Death was staged with a prop head full of gelatin and cauliflower. No monkeys, just very committed vegetables.
Historians do find a few real mentions, for example in accounts of lavish Qing-era imperial banquets and a couple of travel writers’ stories from Macau and Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s. There’s also a mix-up in translation: the “monkey head” mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) has nothing to do with monkeys at all.
Today, serving monkey brains is illegal in China under wildlife protection rules, and eating brain tissue from animals carries a real risk of prion diseases. Chimpanzees are an endangered species, and international trade in them is banned under the CITES treaty, so the 2006 web shop below was never a good idea. Our verdict: this one belongs firmly in the film archive.
More legendary horrors: how to cook rats and baby mice wine, or browse Food Crimes.
From the 2006 original
Monkey brains are definitely one of the most legendarily revolting delights ever!
From the website of Indian located Benny Agra you can order your own chimp for eating or for a pet. Benny even promises delivery to anywhere in the world within 30 days of order. Benny sells you one chimp for 5000,- bucks, or 3 for 10.000,-
Barbaric as hell!
