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Published: August 6th 2009
Over the last 10 months I’ve come to realize that being an adventurous person in this part of the world is a relative term. A huge step that both Cass and I have taken is becoming a bit more adventurous with what we eat. The majority of the time, we have no choice in the matter, i.e., teacher dinners or basically any time Jon G. is with us, but we’ve emerged on the other side with some giggles, wrinkled eyebrows, murdered taste buds, and a newfound respect for what people have on their plate in this part of the world.
From Bundeggi (silkworms), to fish head soup, pork ankle meat, those dried fish spine chip things, to some kind of antennaed mollusk creature (of course, all are eaten “for your health” or as we already know “for stamina”) we have just recently finished filming our own version of the Travel Channel’s TV show No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain travels the world discovering and eating the delicious and often quirky foods of his destinations. In this edition Cassie and Jon-thony Bourdain take on one of Korean’s more interesting dish… Nakji: live octopus (IT’S ALIVE, mwooo ha ha ha…).
I’ll save
you the google search and include the Wikipedia info I found on this beauty…
Sannakji or sannakji hoe is a variety of hoe, or raw dish, in Korean cuisine. It consists of live nakji (hangul: 낙지, a small octopus) that has been cut into small pieces and served immediately, usually lightly seasoned with sesame and sesame oil. The nakji pieces are usually still squirming on the plate. It can also be served whole.
Because the suction cups on the arm pieces are still active when the dish is served, special care ought to be taken when eating sannakji. The active suction cups can cause swallowed pieces of arm to stick to the mouth or throat. This can also present a choking hazard for some people, particularly if they are intoxicated. One must thoroughly chew so that no piece is big enough to stick to one's throat. Some people like the feel of the pieces wriggling as swallowed, and so will not completely chew up the particles. Those who are new to eating sannakji should completely chew it up into tiny particles before swallowing. One of the more difficult things with nakji is simply getting them out
of the dish. The tentacles are still alive, but cut up into pieces, picture a worm that still moves after you slice it. The suction cuppers are still in complete working order as well, so grabbing them with your chopsticks (which is tough to start with) and having them refuse to give up their grasp on the plate was a fun little battle. As you can imagine, it was wiggly, and slimey so, we gooped on the red pepper paste watched the poor little tentacle squirm, and down the hatch it went- Bear Grylls style. It didn’t taste much like anything other than the hot sauce, but I just couldn't get the image of grandpa’s backyard nightcrawler getting served up for dinner out of my head.
Of course, we had to cross the street soon after and wash down our delicacy with some pineapple makkoli (a cheap flavored rice wine concoction) at a place that resembles ‘middle earth,’ well into the evening.
I know Iwill NOT eat the dog meat served in some of the restaurants here, but I do wonder what kind of crazy food I will be sitting in front of next…
Hope you enjoy
the videos and pictures of this, as well as, the little walk down weird eatting memory lane that I left withyou. Just a quick update, also, we got just about all ready for our forays into Vietnam, Hong Kong, and hopefully Macau. Cass just needs to put in one more week of camp and she's home free. Next week, I'm gonna be exploring some of Korea's southern islands with my friend Tom, hopefully getting to the more famous Jeju Island (one of the 27 nominated '7 wonders of the natural world' people can vote on). We will be sure to keep people up to date on everything in the next three weeks or so! Hope all is well back home! We are thinking of everyone!
*** Jon G. just uploaded his awesome video of the dinner on his blog. It's cool- you should check it out- click
here to watch it.
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sarah
non-member comment
I got my "gag" on. No way....no how!!!!