Chapter Thirty-Two: The Octopus

Warning: This post is pretty much entirely about eating a live octopus. If the idea of this offends you in any way, you might want to stop reading now. It gets graphic. Apologies to my vegan readers!
Scroll down to the bottom if you just want to skip ahead to the wriggling video action.
This is usually what it looks like when we go out to eat. I have no idea how we have so many plates and bowls, but we always do. Last night, the restaurant lady even started serving our food on top of stacks of other dishes.



When Dini, Nicole, and Arthur decided to get an octopus (which I cannot eat, having tested as allergic to seafood and not wanting to test this allergy in Korea), I was worried that I would seem culturally insensitive if I took pictures. We were the only people in the restaurant and though Dini gave me crap, he was okay with it. Here, he took my camera and took pictures of her cutting up the live octopus.

He also took this picture of the tank in which the little guys live. Seriously, for people like their sushi or seafood fresh, can you beat this?

You cannot really tell in this picture, but the octopus' suction cups are stuck to Dini's lip. He is struggling to pull it off. You can see his lip being pulled too.

"Gotcha!"

The octopus on the plate.

Nicole washing it down with a little soju.

The grizzly remains. You can see the head on the right. The next few pictures are of what happened to said head. It bothered Nicole and I a little bit because it had these big blue eyes that were watching us. They decided, in true Korean fashion, that the best way to pick who would eat the head was Rock, Paper, Scissors. At first, it was going to just be Arthur and Dini. But Nicole and I had to but in and ask, "Wait, wait, do you eat it if you win or if you lose?" It was apparently obvious to both of them that you eat it if you lose. Unfortunately, bringing up this discussion made them realize that Nicole wasn't planning on partaking. They would only play if she would. Nicole was terrified that she would have to eat it. I have never seen such relief as when she got out in the first round.

Dini lost, but he took it in stride. He dipped it in some sauce.

And then, of course, to freak us out had to play with it a little bit.

"Mmm, juicy."

"I can feel the eyes pop."

But Nicole, how do you really feel?

What you've all been waiting for, video: