Eating live octopus in Korea

Asia's live animal-eating practices

Some travellers develop a cast iron stomach and an even steelier resolve to eat whatever they come across whilst they are away from the comforts of home. For this they should be applauded but there are dishes in Asia that will test anyone's resolve, even when they are presented like 'real' food. Donghuamen Night Market in Beijing presents all kinds of edible oddities on sticks but once they have been cooked and placed on that stick, they don't look quite so odd. There is just something homely about that stick. Take the stick away, however, and breathe life back into the critters and beasties and that steely resolve is tested again, further this time and sometimes to destruction. Oysters on the half shell, drunken shrimps and the controversial ikizukuri, the Japanese process of gutting and slicing up fish without killing them, are but three examples of people eating live animals and while the prospect of eating oysters or shrimps may not alert your spidey sense, Korea has its own live dish that just might.

Live octopus in Korean film

One of Korea's most celebrated directors, Park Chan-wook is well known around the world for his brutal films that often include a drop of blood or two. Thanks to Mr Pak, there is an everlasting celluloid example of a practice that is actually very common in Korea. In possibly his best known film, Old Boy, a poor octopus is seen being torn into pieces by a disheveled character who consumes the beast using only his hands and his teeth. While the practice of eating live octopuses whole and tearing them into pieces isn't particularly common, seeing a small octopus chopped into manageable pieces at your table with a pair of scissors is.

Enjoying sannakji (small octopus)

Sannakji are small octopuses that are plucked from a tank of water and taken directly to the table, often a table of semi drunken men. Being drunk is far from an integral part of eating nakji. However, it can in fact be a hindrance of the worst kind if you are unlucky enough to come across a particularly stubborn and murderous octopus.

At the table the little cephalopod is usually snipped into pieces with a pair of scissors, appendages dangling and wavering, a tentacle at a time. They are dropped onto a plate with sesame oil and sometimes torn up sheets of paper thin seaweed and left to twitch and writhe around until the last vestiges of life have drained from their tiny limbs. That is of course if they have the chance to. Sannakji should be eaten while it is still moving as only this can guarantee its freshness and it is only live, wriggling, squirming pieces of octopus tentacle that try to attach themselves to the inside of your cheek, or the surface of your tongue, or your teeth or anywhere else they can cling to in order to avoid dropping into the pit of acid that is their eventual fate.

And therein lies the main reason to eat sannakji.

Why eat live octopus

The sensation of tiny suckers on the inside of your mouth is far more sensuous and pleasing than the actual taste and texture of the octopus. The tentacles are muscular and hard, like chewing through rubber but chew you must for while electrical impulses coarse through the severed members there is every chance a piece of a tentacle will grasp onto you. You don't want this to happen as you are attempting to swallow or it may be the last thing you ever eat. Some people like the feeling in their throats of desperate octopuses attempting to cling on for dear life but don't take the chance, not your first time anyway. Let them writhe in the relative safety of your mouth but putting your molars to good use and grinding the life out it before swallowing.

Take heed at your own risk but there have been cases of drunken men and food exhibitionists, who insists on living on the culinary edge, being undone by a single piece of a single, tiny octopus.