Octopus

 

Rice Cake Soup - Traditional New Years Food

I don't know.

I had a very special New Years this year, that I celebrated with my host family.  I went over to their house just in time for a traditional Korean New Years lunch, which, of course, involved kimchi, rice cakes, and some sort of onion, noodle, i'm not so sure dish.  Nothing too out of the ordinary.



We planned on going ice-skating afterwards, but it turned out that the rink was already jam-packed with ice-skaters, so that didn't end up happening.  But hey - when one door closes, another one opens, right?  Right.  Instead, we decided to go to an open air fish market and pick out our dinner for the night.  Sushi and octopus were on the menu!!  Let's just say that I didn't know what I was getting myself into.

The sushi was delicious, and typical.  The octopus, however, was a completely different story.  My host mom set the plate of raw octopus tentacles out on the table, and to my surprise, and slight horror, they were still moving!  I'm sorry, what?!  They were suctioning themselves to the plate and squirming around.  Apparently, after you cut the head off of an octopus, the nerves still cause the legs to twitch for a while.  Didn't know that.

I watches my host parents and kids eat a few bites before I got up the courage to pick up my chopsticks.  As I was mentally preparing myself to put on of the tnetacles in my mouth, little Charles issued a quick warning to me: "Teacher, be careful.  You could die.  Chew many times.  Or it stuck in throat and you die."

Ok.  Just... ok.

So, at that point, I put the octopus tentacle back down on my plate, and tried to remember why these things were eaten in the first place.  But with enough prompting from my host mom, I finally worked up the courage to try it.  Within about two seconds of putting it into my mouth, it suctioned to my tongue.  I let out a slight yelp because, to be honest, it hurt!  The suction cups may be small, but don't be fooled - they're strong and they pinch!  So then I chewed, and chewed, and chewed, and chewed, and chewed, and chewed some more.   

When it was all said and done, I must admit, it was tasty!  At least, the dipping sauce was tasty.  It had a kind of sesame, soy sauce, peanut butter taste to it.  And the texture wasn't all that bad.

At least, not  until my host mom took the rest of the octopus out of the oven.  I was surprised to find that I was much more of a fan of raw octopus, than of its cooked coutnerpart.  To finish off our meal, my host mom took the octopus heads out of the oven, where they had been baking for a while.  She used her food scissors to cut one of them open so that I could take a look inside.  As she cut, the ink spilled out.  Once again, I'm wondering if this is actually safe to eat.  She reassured me that this was the best part.  The most delicious.  Octopus brain was a bit of a delicacy, according to her. 


Octopus Heads

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree.  I tried one, and it was... very... mushy.  It reminded me of something that I've had before, but I still can't quite put my finger on it.  Let's just say the texture left a lot to be desired.  But I suppose it's a good thing that I didn't want to guzzle down too many, as she later told me that if you consume too much of the ink, you will get a stomach ache. 

I think that was the most exciting New Years dinner I've ever experienced.  Ever.