One of the post-docs in the lab is from Korea, and I am continuously horrified at some of the stuff she has professed to enjoy eating.
I thought maybe I could gross even HER out today.
ESC: Hey, so I was watching this show called “no reservations with anthony bourdain,” where he’s this cynical, alcoholic chef who travels all over the world and eats weird shit…
N: like a reality show?
ESC: kind of, it’s a travel food show, I guess, so last night he went to Korea, and…
N: did he eat the live octopus?
ESC: *blink* …what? How did you KNOW???
N: they ALWAYS do that when people come to Korea. They always have them eat the live octopus.
OK, remind me never to go to Korea. Apparently, there is a visitors octopus clause.
So yeah, they ate chopped up live octopus on the show, that was still WRIGGLING as they dipped it in a red sauce and swallowed it down. N assured me it was delicious, and that SOME people ate the live octopus WHOLE. She also confirmed the part of the show where they ate what was essentially a stir fry made from an organ found near a chicken’s rear parts - basically, chicken butt stir fry. N described it as “chewy but delicious.” N is also the one in the lab who enjoys pupas, so please excuse me if I will just have to take her word for it.
OK, people. You people from other countries? You’re sick. Seriously. Especially the Koreans, apparently.
I totally understand the whole “use the entire animal so that nothing is wasted” philosophy. Very Native American. But you know, I’m pretty sure there were parts of the buffallo that were referred to in their language as something like “and this is the stuff we feed our dogs.”
Because, oh my god, CHICKEN BUTT? It was a tiny piece of “meat,” too. Hardly word the effort of digging it out. THROW THAT SHIT AWAY!
Or at least grind it up into sausage like my ancestors did.
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Ah, sausage. Where the intestines and ground up chewy parts come together in perfect harmony…
God, I love being of German descent…
Hehehehehe… that’s why humans rule the planet, dear, we’re omnivores. We have been the only predator that will eat anything - including our own - in order to survive.
Cockroaches got nuthin’ on us!
My dad did the live monkey brain thing while in the middle east. Explains a lot about my childhood…
*now cancelling the trip to Korea….*
Joan is Korean but thankfully is fully westernized so no live octopus for me. Mmmm, sausage…..
to each culture to it’s own. do you ever notice though that htere aren’t really FAT asians. I mean yea okay sumo wrestlers that are groomed like that, but as a people as a whole they are usually slender. and us fat americans sit around eating our americanized pizzas, hamburgers, fried chicken sandwiches and die of high cholestoral and heart disease!
Italians are into octopus, though the kill it before eating it. I have this rule that if it has suckers on it, I don’t eat it. My parents also like tripe and sea snails, which I can do without.
While I find it interesting that other cultures eat such different things, I find that even as far as going to the East Coast, or deep south, in America is enough to make my ‘ew’ reflex kick in. CRAWfish? EWWWWW! Lobster? Crabs? All disgusting to me…
And had I KNOWN what calimari was before I ate it, I never would have tried it. At least I can say it’s good now, even though I will likely never eat it again. Thank you car insurance comercial!
I LOVE ANTHONY BOURDAIN AND NO RESERVATIONS! w00t. sorry, had to say that. and yeah, live octopus… i’d need a guarantee he wasn’t going to latch onto my vocal chords on the way down.