Live Octopus: Not Just for America's Next Top Models

OK so I didn't update while away. I'm back now - from what was a most awesome trip to Seoul and Shanghai with brief stopovers in Taipei and Hong Kong.

The week before I left, a video hit the web like crazy - making it all over the blogs and whatnot, and created a small buzz about South Korean food. Apparently America's Next Top Model Season 1 contestant Elyse Sewell ate live octopus and recorded it here. This is something I already planned on for my trip - and I completely did it up - Elyse Sewell be damned.

We got the octopus straight out of the tank at Garak Fish Market, had it chopped, and ate it upstairs in the Fish Market's cafeteria. And we went through two of the containers shown above! AND our octopus tentacles were kicking and spiraling rather than just twitching. So good - my favorite food of the trip, and I had quite a number of things with no English translation (at least none I've discovered).

It is worth noting that I also had another most amazing night out with friends at a pojangmacha (mobile street tent restaurant) eating live squid (moving about just like the octopus) and downing some kind of spiky red sea lump with copious soju.