Little white legs came out on a large platter still wiggling! I watched as my Korean Dad ate first, as is customary to wait for the eldest to begin eating, before I picked a small leg from the side. What no one will tell you, is that the little suckers on their legs still work after they're dead. I remember how the leg stuck to my chopstick without me actually using any force. Following my Korean Dad, I dipped it in sesame oil and salt, it was very good. I enjoyed the food and conversation for about twenty minutes when I realized my little brother had gone missing.
I looked around and spotted him near the aquatic tank with his face pressed up against it. At the time we had a Tom and Jerry-like relationship; teasing and bickering often, so I was happyto have a break from him during the meal. However, it was not curiosity that had brought my brother to that tank; it was a scheme. My brother plopped back down at the table with a strangely large grin and when the server dropped a full grown and still alive squid on my plate I knew what he had done. He had picked out a real live octopus for me to eat that was the size of two iPhones. Immediately it crawled off my plate and onto the table. The server kindly picked it up and put it back on my plate before leaving. But my brother was not empty handed he had come back with a substantially smaller octopus for himself.
As the tradition goes, it is a sign of masculinity to be able to finish an octopus whole. So, my brother dared me to a competition, and like an idiot, I agreed. There was no prize, just bragging rights. I didn't even know how to approach eating something still alive.
