baokun1

We’ve already talked at length about the complex feelings we have whenever we see an anthropomorphic mascot for a food joint shucking his own kin as delicious, greasy human grub. We bet you can’t even count the number of times you’ve walked by a chicken joint whose crazily grinning avian mascot was holding up a bucket of deep-fried drumsticks, or a contented pig sitting down – fork, knife, bib and all – to a barbecue rib feast and never really thought much of it.

Well, if the usually slapdash, cartoonish mascot on the sign of your local wing joint wasn’t in-your-face enough to disturb you with implications of animal cannibalism and the idea that you might just be eating animal protein that was once a creature with enough intelligence to talk and use kitchen utensils, maybe this Kanazawa, Japan pork restaurant ostensibly managed by a live, miniature pig is just the thing to kickstart your conscience, you monster.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/556298353248436224

Appropriately named “Taboo,” the little corner shop is making a stir in Japanese media thanks to Bao-kun – the miniature pig dubbed the official Manager of the restaurant. Japan, for the record, kind of has a thing for making animals the managers of commercial businesses, which must be infuriating for staff at these places:

“Hey, boss! I need Saturday off to ask my girlfriend’s parents for her hand in marriage!”

“Oink.”

“So… is that a yes or no?”

“Oink.” (*licks own genitals*)

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/551685647014957056

Cleverly, the name Taboo kind of works on two different levels. There’s the “taboo” of eating pork products technically served to you by a pig, and the “boo” bit is also the Japanese onomatopoeic word for the sound a pig makes. Relax, it’s just the regular sound, not the panicked squeals they make in the throes of death by human hands.

Japanese visitors to Taboo appear positively smitten with the – admittedly adorable – Bao-kun, who spends most of his days hanging out in a cage, posing for photos that customers will inevitably post on Twitter. We suppose it’s a good fate for an adorable critter that otherwise would almost certainly have wound up in a sandwich… But then again, who’s to say the current Bao-kun is the first?

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/550975303674118144

For details on getting to Taboo, plus some more pics of Bao-kun, you can check out their Facebook page here… you monster.

Source: Togech
Feature photo: Taboo Facebook page