When Diana and I decided to meet in Seoul, we
both had one goal in mind: eat live raw octopus. It’s a common dish in Korea
called Sannakji which means eating
octopus raw and when it’s alive. Some people eat the octopus whole and
some have them cut up (their nerves remain active awhile after they are dead).
We didn’t want to die from the possibility of its tentacles wrapping around our
esophagus, so we stuck with the cut up version.
We were walking around Meyong Dong and took notice to a
particular restaurant that had a tank in the front. The place is called “MeeNeeMaNee”.
I have no clue what it means but if you want to come here just look for the
orange sign and cow-holding-a-hotpot logo. :P
There were small octopuses swimming around inside and we
actually stared at them for a while, most likely from anticipation, fear and
fascination.
Here is a video of the octopuses casually swimming around in
the tank... unaware of their imminent death.
The interior was pretty nice inside and most people were
actually having hot pot. I noticed no one else was eating Sannakji and some
people stared at us when it was served to us. But I guess that’s because most locals
don’t normally eat this stuff regularly. It’s more of a foreigners thing.
They served us some salted condiment to dip our moving
octopus in.
Side dishes are a must in any Korean meal. Here is kimchi
and ‘korean style’ coleslaw.
And here is the star attraction! Photos don’t really do it
justice because you need to see the octopus moving and wriggling around so
check this video out of it staying ‘alive’ after its been cut.
If your youtube isn’t working, here is a picture of the
octopus dish. However, it looked a lot more scary than this because all of the
parts were moving and we had to eat it like that.
Here is the video of me eating Sannakji for the first time.
It was such a cool and slightly scary experience (the suction cups of the
tentacles hold onto the inside of your cheeks and teeth!!! X.X) but I encourage
anyone who is an adventurous eater to give this a try!! You can also check out foodology's blog to see her
side of this experience.
Happy (Adventurous) Eating!
You are so cool!
ReplyDeleteThose videos were great! Really made me appreciate how scary it is when the octopus keeps squirming around. What does it taste like, similar to tako sashimi?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: Aw shucks! Thanks :p
ReplyDelete@Brandon: Yes absolutely. I saw videos of it before on the internet but seeing it in real life was much scarier :P The texture was pretty much exactly like takowasabi (if they use the raw octopus kind) but the difference is that it's still moving. Haha
You are sooo brave. I'd rather have Monkey Brain a hundred times before I'd try this :o) Jarka
ReplyDeleteLove your video! When you went to the bathroom later, nothing was moving?
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you'd get around to this... Woot too bad we don't get anything adventurous like this in Vancouver. Can't wait to see your pics from the trip. Love the videos!
ReplyDelete@Jarka: Haha Monkey Brain is just avocado though! If you are ever in Korea, I dare you to try this!!! :D
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: If something was moving in my toilet, I'd be scared. LOL But I was ACTUALLY worried the tentacles were going to move around while it went down my esophagus so I made sure to chew them until they were super dead.
@Krispymilk: LOL I've been quite busy but I finally had time to post it up. The internet in Korea (or just my dorm) is really slow! It takes forever!
NO way you'd get me to try to eat this! As a Euro, I am used to eating all kinds of innards, including calf brain (which is by the way delish) but it's not moving :o))
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are having a blast. J.