Food Shouldn't Wriggle

WARNING: this post includes a graphic description of a near death experience.  Ok, not near death but still gross. ;)

The main spread

This weekend we were invited by a family from church to have dinner at their house on Sunday.  Upon accepting the invitation, little did I know what my Sunday evening would actually entail.  That night, the father from the family that had invited us to dinner picked us up to take us to his house.  We got in the car and he said we had a change of destination.  Turns out we were having dinner at the house of another church member (the branch president's house for my Mormon friends) and we would be joined by the elder and sister missionaries from our area as well as one other family.

Whole chicken and seafood platter

When we got to our destination, the tables were all set (and when I say tables I mean the little Korean tables that are inches off the floor meaning we get to spend the evening cross-legged while we eat).  Excitement filled my soul as I love more than anything to sit on a hard floor for hours on end (please please please note the sarcasm there). My excitement soon doubled as Trevor indicates that the sauce set is commonly used for seafood dishes.  Anyone who knows me is already understanding how uncomfortable I must feel by this time.

I'm not so sure about all of this

To thank our hosts, Trevor and I brought some fruit to dinner. To add to my anxiety, I handed over the fruit to the Korean lady who in turn took the bag I presented and said something to me in Korean. Nobody was there to translate for me so I just awkwardly smiled and slightly chuckled not saying anything as she walked away to the kitchen.  Another Korean lady who speaks English later came up to me and said "She was asking what you brought".  All I could think was "WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME THIS SOONER???? If you heard her say that and saw me standing there baffled as a baboon, why didn't you say something?!?!"  So basically I presented our fruit to the host, she took it, asked me what we brought and I smiled awkwardly and chuckled.  How embarrassing!

Somewhere throughout all the embarrassment, it had been affirmed that we were having seafood.  Great.  Just great.  I almost toppled over with joy to find out chicken was also part of the meal.  Finally, all the food was ready and everyone sat down at the tables and started eating.  Of course, I get to be even more awkward as I use my very poor chopstick skills in attempting to pry the meat off of the bones of my chicken (it is common here that meat is left on the bones and that you pick out the bones as you go along).  I guess in a way I was lucky because I spent as much time trying to use my chopsticks as everyone else did eating all the seafood.  I tried to stay quiet and slowly pick apart at my chicken hoping my avoidance of all seafood would go unnoticed.

Unfortunately, the main attraction of the night was causing too much ruckus that anyone who didn't try it was quickly pointed out.  All the other foreigners (a.k.a. the missionaries who were already used to trying strange Korean dishes) had already tried it.  It was now my turn.  What is this dish that was causing such a scene?  Eight letters.  Oh wait, I mean eight arms (or tentacles if you prefer).  Octopus.  And not cooked.  And let me tell you, freshly chopped octopus is far from dead.  Let me share a video of the liveliness of our meal.

I also have a video of the writhing critter going down my throat which I'll share later.  Let me just give you a written explanation of my experience.

One of the sister missionaries dug around in the glob of squirming appendages to find me one of the smaller pieces.  Now to clarify, the piece she found was shorter than the others but it was fatter.  Fatter means bigger suction cups which means a greater chance of it sticking to the inside of my mouth or down my throat.  And of course, the solution to this fear is that you just have to chomp down on it to make sure it's dead as it goes down.  Just to give an idea of the strength of these guys, let me tell you how difficult it was to pry my selected piece from the dish.  I probably could have picked up the octopus and the bowl would have come with it if we hadn't held it down.

After some encouraging (more like taunting peer pressure actually), I shoved it into my mouth and chomped down several times to make sure it wouldn't kill me on the way down.  Imagine a slimy piece of rubber with a salty oily seafoody flavor squishing between your teeth.  The texture was so rubbery in fact, that it actually didn't break apart in my mouth.  It was still one big glob.  Upon realizing I didn't have much of a chance at getting it broken down, I knew I only had one option: to swallow.  The nasty thing slowly slid down my throat like a slimy, goopy glob of awful rubbery meat carrying the chance of suctioning to any part of my mouth or throat.


Here's the video I promised!

The taste was gross, the texture was almost debilitating, and the fact that I had to kill my own food before I swallowed made for quite the experience.  Let's just say it's something I'll never have to try again.  But hey, now I can at least say I've eaten a piece of a wiggling octopus leg.  Looking back now, not sure if it was worth it.

In true Korean fashion, after the main meal was finished, our hosts brought out a rice and potato soup.  After that was done, they then brought out huge plates of watermelon.  Although I'm not much of a fan of watermelon, this one seemed particularly savory just because of the fact that it was something recognizable.  Even better, after the watermelon they brought out ice cream bars which I took with much gratitude.

Well, I hope you all were entertained by my story and have a refreshed sense of courage to try new things.

Midsummer downpour

part of the bamboo forest

view of part of Ulsan across the river

Unfortunately Trevor and I have been taking turns being sick this week so this post won't be all that exciting.  After being cooped up all week, we decided to venture outside to go see the bamboo forest near the river in Ulsan.  I guess the sky had a cold too because once we got there, it started dripping almost as much as my nose has been all week.  Ok, maybe the downpour of rain was a bit more drastic than my sickness but the amount of times I've had to blow my nose makes it seem comparable to a midsummer monsoon.

Rain doesn't always render frowns :)

FEEL the art Kelsey. BE the art.

We were able to walk around for a while and admire an outdoor art show by the edge of the river and walk on the outside of part of the bamboo forest but the rain soon came down relentlessly and our single umbrella just wasn't making the cut.  So, we hopped back on the bus and stayed indoors the rest of the weekend.  Whoopee!  Just goes to show you that just because you live in a foreign country doesn't mean you'll be constantly surrounded by mind-blowing adventures.  Sorry for the boring post and hope you enjoy a couple of these pictures!

Happy Anniversary!

1 year ago, I was sealed forever to my best friend!  I can't believe time has gone by so fast and that so much has happened within a year.  To celebrate the occasion, Trevor and I spent a marvelous weekend in Busan, the 2nd largest city in South Korea.  Busan is about an hour away which makes it a convenient place for a quick vacation. 

degi gookbap

hoduck

The first evening there we spent time walking around exploring the area around our hotel and then going to the big downtown area that had a lot of fun shops and food stands and lots and lots of people.  That night we indulged in several tasty treats.  A new favorite snack of mine is called hoduck and is best described as a fried pancake with caramelizedpeanut cinnamon flavored goodness on the inside.  We also went to a little mom and pop Korean restaurant and had one of Trevor's favorites, degi gookbap which is a pork soup dish. The downtown area featured many snacks and treats such as the blueberry-whipped cream-honey waffle we both shared.  YUM!

The second day was mostly spent shopping in a very large area full of assorted shacks selling any assortment of things your heart desires.  Even though it makes me a grandma or "harmay", I've wanted to get a parasol that almost every older lady owns here.  They are generally lacy and sparkly and above all, dainty.  I found a beautiful one in one of the shacks filled floor to ceiling with parasols and umbrellas (yes they are different things, especially here).  As if carrying around a parasol wasn't enough protection from the sun, we also visited several hat shacks searching for one I didn't feel too ridiculous in.  I finally did it Kelley! I have a large brimmed sun hat to protect my pale face!  If you know Trevor (or even if you don't know him you could probably guess), you know he isn't much fond of shopping.  He has been wanting a new pair of sunglasses though and we found some that suited him well.  It was so interesting to see everything that people were offering for sale in these hut-like shops and each store owner had their own interesting personality.  

Seriously, floor to ceiling

That evening we hit up a "Mexican" restaurant where I had two "chipotle chicken tacos" and Trevor had a "chipotle chicken chimichanga"  Although when they were brought out to us they looked like regular Mexican food, it wasn't as close to what you can find in Mexico or America as I had hoped.  Don't get me wrong, my meal was pretty tasty but it was certainly made by Koreans (and I include portion size in the comparison as well). 

The night was ended at the Busan International Dance Festival which was held on a stage on the beach which was amazing to be able to attend!  My sweetheart is so good to me, letting me go to a dance event on our anniversary weekend!  There were dances from several other countries and I've put together a conglomeration of all the video I took that night.  I will include the link at the end of this post.  The other video I will post is the entire clip of probably my favorite dance of the night which was a dance about the life of Edith Piaf, who was a very famous French singer.  It might have been the choreography, the music, or simply the fact that it was about Edith Piaf that made me LOVE this dance.  Nobody said anything about no filming or picture taking and everyone else was filming so I assume these videos aren't illegal ;)  Hope you enjoy them and sorry about the poor videography, the fact that my camera can't focus very well especially with the lighting, and the fact that we were at the very back of the seating.  I did my best in capturing the artistic beauty of the night.

Happy anniversary Trevor! I love you!

Link to conglomeration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV584TFqLtA

Link to the Edith Piaf video:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QDQbQKOtEg