Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Pungeocheon in Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Sannakji

After dinner, the team wanted to press on to a shop that specialized in live octopus (153-64 Samseong-dong, 501-3555). Yep, the kind that you've seen on TV where the tentacles are still squiggling on the plate. A couple of the suction cups grabbed a hold of my lips at first, but it helped if one dipped it in sesame oil first and chewed properly, assuming that you could pull it off of the plate using those slippery metal chopsticks in the first place.

Another version that they ordered was a soup where an octopus was dunked into a boiling broth at the table. Now, the octopus itself didn't have much taste, and in fact was a bit hard to chew. But the sliced up bits of head at least were a bit more interesting, and the clear thin broth was refreshing too. Apparently this place isn't really where someone goes for a meal, but rather to get these as snacks to go along with drinks.

No comments: