1 post tagged “sannakji”

Before coming to the US, I had lunch with a certain young man who decided to take me to a sashimi restaurant.  Generally I love sashimi.  He put aside his own personal aversion (and yes, he is Korean) to take me to this place.

Come to find out they serve a special dish known as sannakji, best described as "living" octopus tentacles.  It's... disturbing to say the least.  I refused to eat one.  My date showed off and popped one into his mouth, munching with showy aplomb.  He informed me that about 3-4 elderly people die a year eating these suckers (pun not intended!) because the tentacles stick in their throats.

Although these little dudes aren't showing much life, they'd been sitting in the bowl for several minutes and therefore lost some of their initial vitality.  When I tried to pry one out of the dish it stuck stubbornly to the side.  "You won't eat me if I have anything so say about it!"  Not that I would.  The wriggling sliminess put me off just a tad.  This is, by far, the most, er... interesting dining experience I've had yet in Korea.

I'm in the US--Tampa, FL specifically--now for winter vacation.  Will be returning on Jan 26 and hope to take many wonderful pictures!  "Santa" brought me a beautiful little digital camera for Christmas so I'm looking forward to using it extensively.  I've also got my heart set on a trip to Jejudo so if I can convince someone to go with me, I'd really like to snap some shots around the island.

Hope everyone out there had a fantastic Christmas and New Year's!