Today, we hitched a ride from near Damyang back to Gwangju. I was slightly freaked out, but my wife’s Korean friend had no qualms and jumped at the offer. I figured he’d be safer wth me in the car and jumped in after him.
Along the way, the driver suggested some sights to see and a venue for dinner. He dropped as at the restaurant and went on his way.
We ordered Nakkji muchim, a spicy octopus dish with the octopus boiled briefly (only one minute). When the dish arrived, the cooked octopus was promptly chopped up with scissors, and the (apparently delicious) inside of its head was set aside after the outer flesh was removed and cut. The octopus was tasty, and we mixed it with rice as well to make a kind of nakkji bibimbap. The octopus innards sat there for a while as we both discussed what it was going to be like.
We finally decided it was time, and grabbed the odd-looking egg-like objects and put them in or mouths. I chewed. The taste was OK, with an oddly appropriate raw egg-yolk taste and texture mixed with the octopus. I had to fight a gag reflex though as my brain thought through just exactly what I was eating.
As we neared the end of the meal, my friend suggested we get some sambalnakkji (three legged octopus), which we had discussed earlier in the day. I suspected nothing, was a bit full, but it was the last I was going to see of him until I was back in Seoul, so I said ‘OK’.
Rather than describe what happened then, I’ll just embed the youtube videos:
And the earlier video of the octopus innards being set aside:
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Hi J,
Ouch that live octopus looks scary~
Though Korean food is great but this is something that i still can’t eat. (or may be someday i’ll try~~)
yuk! yuk! yuk!
glad I didn’t come
Yeah, when it came to eat it, I could only imagine what it would be like for the octopus and couldn’t put it in my mouth.
Well..thats some meal!!! haaahaa…. live octopus…hmm i dont think so..at least for the moment!
it looks horrible, how a somebody eat it, at least i cannot…
Hats off to you man at least you tried it….haha
Yeah, Korean food is nothing if not varied. The discussion afterward around exactly what’s going through a Korean’s head when they eat it was interesting.
But you’re right, what would make someone think to do that in the first place is a bit beyond me. Extreme starvation, drunken dares after a heavy night on the soju. None of those really explain how it became a regular part of some people’s diet
I cannot be bothered to watch the videos, but people who put animals thru needless suffering disgust me.
no it is not good to eat it alive.
Hi Aleksi,
I agree, which is why I wasn’t actually able to put the poor creature in my mouth. The contrasts in individual values when it comes to food in Korea is interesting, and something I would have needed better Korean language ability to understand. But Korea is a country that’s gone through very rapid growth, and has an unusual mix of rich, middle class and poor. Western society (and it’s take on animal rights) got to where it was through a reasonably lengthy period of slow cultural change. Not so for the more newly developed nations. That’s my (probably wrong) take, anyway. The way in which criticism is taken in a confucian society doesn’t help much either. Some change is slow.