Four legs too many...

My boss took our teaching staff out to lunch today so that we could celebrate my arrival and commemorate the departure of Candice, my current roommate. For some reason I was led to believe that we were going out for chicken -- a special Korean dish called "Samgyet'ang" which is prepared by stuffing a chicken with ginseng, cabbage and a variety of spices, and then boiling the chicken whole in a broth of rice wine and vegetables. Unfortunately I didn't get the memo telling us that we were actually going out for fresh seafood.

When I say FRESH SEAFOOD what I mean is: they brought a kettle FULL of STILL LIVING (read: moving) creatures (shrimps, crabs, squid, clams, mussels, and various other sea life) to our table, turned on the in-set BBQ, and boiled our slimey friends alive (in a broth of red peppers, bean sprouts and onions) right before our very eyes! And as if that wasn't enough, just as the food finished cooking the waitress returned with a strange black tub. She then pulled the lid off of the furiously boiling kettle and then dumped a LIVE OCTOPUS into the mix!!!!!!!!!!

Following the meal my boss said that my face went SO white when I saw the squirming creature that she was concerned I might faint! I must assure you that as soon as I realized I was going to have to put that writhing creature into my mouth I nearly brought-up all of our delicious appetizers. Naturally I was "honoured" with the first serving from the kettle. Smiling, I chewed appreciatively on the tightly curled tentacles and carefully swallowed in an effort to avoid having the creature's suction-cups choke me to death after only 1 week of work abroad. Never before have I eaten such an... EXOTIC meal. Apparently octopus is a delicacy in Mokpo, and I will be hard-pressed to avoid eating it again if I dine with others. Truth be told: I actually enjoyed the food today. It actually tasted very good. --But that doesn't mean I'm going to start eating the LIVE BABY OCTOPUS LEGS which are the TRUE specialty around these parts. That's going just one step too far in my opinion.

PS. I tried to take a photo of our meal before we ate it but apparently that's bad form in Korea. Sorry guys! I will get my ass into gear on the photo front this week -- PROMISE!!!