Well, 2 weeks back I went back to Seoul, Korea where I grew up for the first time in 5 years. Anyways, the main reason I went back is because I miss eating this live octopus.
Hey, at least I took some photos and videos to show you guys even if you don’t understand.
I’ve also started a new site called Travel-Korea.net that details the real life in Korea. Check it out as I just launched the site an hour ago, I’ve got a ton of videos to render now.
When I arrived in Korea, my mom asked me what I wanted to eat, I said, “Sannakji” (산낙지), which means live octopus.
Let me clear up some of the mis-understandings and rumors here. Koreans don’t actually eat “live” octopus. The head of the octopus has been cut beforehand and the tentacles naturally move but it’s not actually “live”.
We don’t know why what the tentacles still “function”, but that’s why I love live octopus, it sticks on your tongue. Just make sure you chew all the way before swallowing otherwise you can choke to death as it happens in Korea to several every year.
And you want to eat live octopus “fresh”, preferably at a live octopus specialty restaurants. In Korea, there’s live octopus restaurants that specialize in that and that only. Also, you can get live octopus at fish markets, which are super fresh, I will have a blog post on that too later.
I know PETA has been posting bunch of animal-cruelty videos of Koreans eating a whole octopus “live”. That’s completely made-up and the live octopus dish is served with the tentacles only. And yes, the movie Old Boy is a “movie”, hello world!
Well, it’s a different culture, you won’t understand why Koreans eat live octopus unless you grew up in Korea.
