An "Ink"redible Tuesday Lunch

Dear morning adult students,
If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't experience the real Korea.

Once again, this week another "first" was completed. This "first" was not at all expected. In fact, when I first heard about this "first" I was convinced that I would never experience this "first," simply because this "first" has taken people's lives.

Now you might expect I did something like bungee jumping or skydiving or swim with sharks, but no. I ate a living, moving, breathing squid. That's right, a live (obviously raw) squid, a squid that was still living, a squid that was brought to it's death by my own teeth. "But Natalee, you only ate the legs right?" "No, my friend, I ate the body and head as well (however, those WERE boiled)." Now let me give you the whole story.

So, on Tuesday my students took me to a town not too far away called Seochon. One of my students lives there and apparently tis the season for the camellia flower in Seochon. So, Mrs. Nam, Mrs. Ko, Mr. Che, and Yonggeun and I piled into Mr. Che's car and we were off to see some camillias. First we took a little hike and admired this beautiful red flower. Here we are:


Then, they decided I should experience what the city is really known for, san nak ji. "San" meaning "live" and "nak ji" meaning "squid." So, this is how the process went. First we walked up to what looked like a fun aquarium with many many creatures of the sea.


However, there was no fun aquarium in sight. This was a genuine seafood restaurant. On the first floor was a fresh fish market where the customers can observe their future food swimming around and on the second floor was where you sit and either cook the food yourself, or you just skip the cooking part and eat it raw. My students picked out the best looking "san nakgi" they could find, along with 2 crabs and a bunch of oysters. So, here are some containers of other specialties being sold (please notice the sea worm in the right hand corner...apparently they like those puppies raw as well...maybe next time, Mrs. Ko)



And here is a close up of one particular "nak gi" He was the grandaddy of them all and pretty aggressive.

After selecting the finest looking "nak gi," we headed upstairs to begin the feast. They pretty much just put the squirming sea creatures in a container and put it on our table. Mrs. Nam sprung into action. She grabbed those creatures by the head and "snip snip" she cut off those tentacles like nobodies business. Here is one trying to make a desperate escape:


I was told by a number of people that this meal has killed people before. At first it sounds a little absurd, but after seeing it, I realize that it is a possibility. After Mrs. Nam cut off the tentacles, they still moved around and the suction cups were still very much in tact. So, it's been said that some people (I'm pretty sure "tipsy" people) put the live tentacle in their mouth and don't chew fast enough, thus resulting in the leg attaching it self to their throat and choking them to death. So, as I was watching these tentacles latching onto the bowl, I could only picture it latching to the back of my throat. Apparently the remedy is milk and warm water (according to my kid students...yes, this meal is so common that all my younger students have eaten it too). My adult students were very gracious, they made sure the one tiny piece that I did try was small and basically dead. And in it went:


It didn't taste like much..it was just very chewy and slimy. Notice the bowl in front of me that was full of spinach and crabs. Never in my life had I been so happy to see a bowl of spinach.

After the appendages were all taken care of and now squirming around in our stomachs, I thought we would just toss the heads and be done with it. But no. Nope..instead, after eating the spinach, crabs, and oysters out of the pot, Mrs. Ko gathered up the heads/bodies and tossed them right in the boiling water.


I said I didn't know if I could handle it, and that I was pretty full. But Mrs. Ko was bound and determined that I experience true Korea. So she gave me this little head since I am a beginner afterall.


What's that black stuff you ask? It's ink. "Nemo, you made me ink." Yes, in the bigger heads, there is a large ink sac. I tried to get rid of most of the ink before I put it in my mouth. But the others were all for the explosion of ink in their mouth. Two of them even temporarily stained their mouth and teeth black. Furthermore, the bigger heads were full of eggs which apparently are "delicious."

Here I am shoveling this little head in my mouth. While I was in this process I thought I was handling it pretty well, but then I went back and looked at my pictures, and I'm pretty sure my face showed everything..I've never been one to hide my emotions.


After all this, they brought out even more food, 2 packages of ramen noodles that we were to sop up the rest of the water. This was pretty normal except for the occasional lump of black ink. THEN even after all this food, they brought out the rest of the crab and some oysters in a spicy soup. Finally, it was finished.

When I was in the moment and watching this all take place in front of my eyes, it didn't seem abnormal really at all. And even when I was finally able to unlatch a tentacle from the bowl with my metal chopsticks and pop it in my mouth I just kept saying to myself, "These people do this all the time, this won't kill me...right?" Leaving the restaurant, I felt very full. Then as we got closer to Gunsan and my mind starting replaying the moving nakgis I felt a bit queezy. Then when I was telling my coworkers about my lunch, it made me feel a little more uneasy. When I got home after work, I uploaded the pictures and that really got me. I didn't eat dinner or breakfast and lunch the next day..nothing seemed good and I still felt "full." In fact, right now, even though I haven't eaten for 6 hours, retelling the story makes me feel "full."

HOWEVER, I am so thankful to have a group of people who are truly helping me experience Korea. I love hanging out with them and I love the crazy things they make me do.

There is probably more to tell about my week last week (like the perfect weekend of grilling steaks and riding bikes through parks exploding with cherry blossoms), but Tuesdays "ink"redible lunch was most definitely the highlight and probably the highlight for the past 7 months as well.

In case you yourself are feeling a little uneasy after reading and looking at these pictures of this helpless sea animal, here is a picture of the whole purpose of our excursion on Tuesday, the camellia flower. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!