Sunday, May 10, 2009

From the Former Vegetarian Comes the Girl Who Ate Food That Was STILL MOVING

That's right, I ate food that was still alive and twitching while I ate it. Let me back up.

Salsa boy (who else) and I decided to go see the new Star Trek on Saturday. Unfortunately, it's not like Long Island where the theaters are massive and you can just stroll up and buy tickets half an hour before the show starts. Oh no, in Korea you have to go early and get them, between 3 and 6 hours depending on location and popularity. A lot of Koreans will just buy their tickets online instead of going to the theater in the afternoon and coming back later. The usual catch applies for us waegooks (foreigners)--we have to be able to read enough Korean to navigate the website and get what we want. I might have a good handle on survival Korean but it definitely doesn't extend to movie websites. It wasn't really a big deal though, the basement of Lotte has an ice cream stand that is DAIRY FREE! I do believe I've waxed on about this before. It's the first time I went and didn't eat a pint or two on my own, I actually restrained my gluttony and had a small cup of cookie avalanche (the non dairy version of cookies and cream). Anyways, we had a few hours to kill in Anyang and were wandering around. The things I subject this poor boy to...such as:
-make-up shopping
-Starbucks (He objects to their use of non fair trade coffee...and I concur but find me a place in Anyang that DOES use fair trade coffee and has soy milk. I thought not. Also, it is tasty. I can usually win him over with a double mocha latte though.)
-getting distracted by all of the shiny window displays and sales.

I was very good though, I didn't buy anything but the make-up stuff which Was organic and they always give me a bag full of fun free samples. I don't have the heart to say that if the label isn't in English I can't use it because I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it but some of it is obvious enough. After the make-up shopping we heard a loud, very excited "MISTER A-----!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO!" My Salsa Boy was greeted by about 10 of his elementary school students who were ecstatic to see him and practice a bit of English. They were also very excited to see me.

Cute girl with freckles: OOOOOOOOO. Mister A---- Girlfriend?!
Salsa Boy: Yes. *blushes furiously*
All of them: OHHHHHHHHHH VERY beautiful! You, marry? *points between the two of us and gesticulates wildly*
Me: Errr, no. Just girlfriend. *looks amused*
Anyways, after this we were debating what to do and decided to wander out of the downtown shops into the traditional market across the street. I've been before but Salsa Boy never had and it was fun to point everything out to him. And then, we ate live octopus for dinner. Live Octopus. We picked out what we wanted out of the tank. The man chopped of his head, cut up the tentacles a bit and then it was put on a plate (of course there were side dishes and sauces to dip it into). The thing about live octopus is that even chopped up into fairly small pieces it will still move independently and suction away and wriggle for a good hour or more. I still can't believe I actually worked up the nerves to do it. Salsa boy and I tend to spur each other on to be more adventerous though to be fair, he'll eat just about anything. We were the only foreigners in the market (that I saw) and definitely the only ones eating live octopus. I'm not sure if the owners had ever had foreigners or very rarely. They were quite excited about us and very friendly. The people at the neighboring table thought it was great that we were eating the octopus and brought over some of their raw oyseters for us to try (awful...they taste SO MUCH BETTER BOILED PEOPLE). However, raw octopus is surprisingly good. You just have to make sure to chew it well so it doesn't stick to the inside of your throat. Where are the pictures you ask?! Never fear, they are here. As usual, these were taken from Salsa Boy's camera since I didn't think I'd need mine for the movie theater.



This guy was so cool, he was playing with the fish for us and just chatting us up in Konglish, very friendly. Definitely the reason I decided to bite the bullet and just do it.








I like the progression here. It was weird, it tasted really good but I couldn't stop freaking out about the fact that I was eating something that was still alive. My heart rate was so elevated I felt like I was running. I bet it gets easier with practice. I think I'd do it again but we'll see. Tonight a group of expats are going to try dog for the first time. I am coming but I don't think I'll partake in the dog, I grew up considering dogs as loveable pets, not food. I don't have anything against it per se, I know that it's simply a different cultural view point I just don't think I can bring myself to do it. We'll see, there might be soju involved when it comes to convincing me.

15 comments:

Salsa Boy said...

Oh, Starbucks, why must thou torment me?
So I think my kids were really jealous, some of them have secret crushes on me, but don't worry I don't go for their type. A little too young. Just a little. However, the backlash being this: every child in that school now knows about you. gossip is like wildfire with these kids. I can see it now "Teacher, you have girlfriend!" "Mr. Salsa Boy, girlfriend look like actress, and you actor... very beautiful!!!" Then a bunch of little ones will banter in there little native words. Oh, but I know what they're saying!!!

Also, I don't "eat just about anything". There are many things I won't eat: orange peel, crunchy peanut butter, fiberglass... it's a pretty long list. But I will say this: If it's prepared well, I suppose I will eat just about anything. But NO NUTS!!! God help you if you put nuts in my dish! In fact, for every nut I find in my food, I shall kill you.

Finally, I shall say, I'm glad I take too many pictures. Having the progression in those photos of you eating the octopus is practically animated and priceless. "1)I'm about to eat a live octopus. 2) Yup, it's still moving. 3)Here it goes 4) Oh my god it's moving in my mouth 5) Hey, that's not bad 6)OMG, I just ate live octopus."

I'm sorry your heart rate wouldn't stop, and it didn't help that Star Trek was action packed. Great movie btw. I wanna see it again.

Hmmm, my comments are too long. I should really consider getting my own blog. Nah, I'll just keep blogging on your comments page.

Hello Alex's family! (^~^)/

Alex said...

Omg it WAS a blog entry length comment and I love it. I wish EVERYONE WOULD COMMENT. *cackles*

Why am I addicted to comments?

I think it was funnier when your co-teachers found out about me, and then gossiped about it to the entire staff of your elementary school. Apparently, I'm a rock star in Anyang. :-p

Also...I want to see that movie again bad enough to consider Paying to see it in the theater one more time...

Nancy K said...

LOL Lynn always loved when you came to dinner, very polite and would eat whatever was put in front of you, but she and Andy loved those facial expressions when you didn't love something! Thanks for the pictures Salsa Boy!
We went to StarTrek last night and we loved it! Having been a fan of the original when it first played on tv, I thought that the characters were delightfully reminiscent of the original cast. Except Mr Checkov. Fun, definitely fun.

Lisette M said...

I loved the progression of your looks! I learned of your blog from your mom's site and have been following and enjoying your adventures.

Unknown said...

Twitching huh? I think you have more balls then me. Did you hear that Rahm Emmaunel is the speaker at graduation? Also they are streaming it live on the web. The related story on the interact between you, salsa boy and his students is hilarious, I can just hear you telling it.

Salsa Boy- I find your comment awesome. How do you know fiberglass isn't tasty? :-P

Rachel said...

Hey Alex - had dinner with your brother last night and of course we talked about food, and cooking, and so forth. I can't believe you ate the octopus - raw. We are seeing Star Trek this afternoon -- couldn't see it last night as already had a date with Grandmother (and Josh was an added bonus).

So now we know more about Salsa Boy. By the way, I know of a dog that once ate Fiberglas, so it must not be that bad!

Keep having fun!

Alex said...

Hey Lisette, welcome to my blog! I'm glad you are enjoying my adventures.

Jess- I knew about the graduation speaker and let me say, I'm definitely jealous. Don't get me wrong, ours was lovely but you know I'm way more into politics.

Aunt Rachel-I still can't believe I did it either!

Josh said...

WOW!!! Love the pictures! You are a silly one, your expressions are (as always) priceless!

Alex said...

Glad you liked the pictures Josh! They are pretty silly :-p.

Nancy K said...

It really wasn't still alive, just still twitching. I love octopus, but I have never had it quite that fresh! Are you in a covered mall? or are the tables outside?

Alex said...

I'm at an outdoor market but it's huge and covered so it's sort of outside. Never quite that fresh eh? I watched the guy kill it! It was crazy!

Josh said...

sorry mom, in my book twitching food qualifies as alive :)

Alex said...

I completely agree with you Josh. Twitching=alive.

Unknown said...

Hey Alex, its your long lost cousin Emuna, came across your blog..woah cant belive this blog.
But Korea, wow sounds so cool.
lol
tty
love ya

Alex said...

Hey Emuna! Welcome to my blog!