1. Live Octopus (산낙지)
That's right. A Korean friend took me and my friend Jill out for a sushi buffet lunch in Gyeongju on Sunday. The buffet was amazing and had some of the best salmon sashimi I had ever tried. One of the other buffet items was live baby octopus!!! I thought, "when in Rome" and gave it a try. On my plate the pieces of octopus were still moving and if I poked them with my chopstick they would move even more, complete with suction action. It was quite difficult to get the piece off the plate - it was if it knew where it was heading and was hanging on for dear life. I had heard that once in your mouth they would latch on to your teeth and cheeks and make it difficult to eat. The octopus that I had was not much of a fighter and i found it fairly easy to chew it up well and swallow it down. Will I have it again? No. There is really no taste to octopus so I don't really see a point in eating it, other than for the novelty.
2. Dog Soup (보신탕)
Upon arriving in Korea I had heard that it was possible to eat dog. My first thought was - gross, I would never eat dog. Well, the longer I have been here and the more people I have talked to about it made me change my mind. This was another situation where I thought that I would probably not have another chance to eat this food, so why not. I went out with my friends Jill and Laura with the help of our Korean friend Sarah. When we arrived at the restaurant we called our friend Sarah who talked to the server and ordered for us. When the food came we of course had to take photos, much to the amusement of the men at the tables around us. We each got a bowl of the soup and we also ordered just a plate of the meat. We all agreed that the meat by itself tasted similar to dark turkey meat. The soup came with shaved ginger, garlic and onions to add. I added all three of these items. The soup was good and I would have it again if the chance arose.
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