In South Korea, street food is very popular. Late at night, you can find small vendors on the main roads selling pastries, fishcakes, meat skewers and even live octopus! Most street foods are very cheap and delicious. There are even entire markets dedicated to street foods. So, I decided to go with a couple of my friends to try Gwangjang Market's street food, specifically its live octopus!
San-nakji is a dish served with very long octopus tentacles, seaweed, and some type of seasoning. The main attraction to san-nakji is that when it is served, the tentacles are still moving! In the video you can see the lady preparing the octopus, and how the octopus looks when it is served! Many people on YouTube create vlogs to record their experiences eating san-nakji.
I was hesitant to try it at first. I never eat raw fish and animal products, because my mom has always told me that I would get sick from eating them. But I decided to try san-nakji because I figured it would be a good experience--it is, after all, a very popular dish in South Korea. When I picked up my first piece of the squirming tentacles with my chopsticks, I held my breath and took a huge bite. WOW! The tentacle moved in my mouth, and it was so chewy.
