They're Alive!!!

So yesterday was an eventful food day! First thing in the morning we went to Noryangjin Fish Market. This place is a huge seafood market where you get can get all types of seafood. They have the most insane selection of exotic delicacies, many of which Will & I didn't even recognize. They had these shrimp that were as long as Will's hand and lobsters that were as big as a small cat. It's all super fresh and my dad would have had a field day at this place! Here are some pictures below of the food we saw.

Then it was off for an interesting breakfast. So one of the things on my to-do list for Korea was to try Sannakji which is raw, squirming baby octopus. I figure if I was going to try them anywhere, this fish market was the best place to try them since they'd be so fresh so we went to one of the restaurants near the market. They basically take a live baby octopus, chop it up, and stick it on a plate. Even though it's technically dead since it's been chopped up, it is still moving on the plate and still uses it's suction cups (technical term unknown) to suck on things. I saw Andrew Zimmern eating them on Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. Anyways, it's an interesting experience. It's just like octopus sushi so the taste was normal to me but the experience was weird. First of all, it's hard to get those suckers off the plate since they hold on for dear life. Once you get them on your chopsticks, you dip them in sesame oil and salt which helps them not stick to your cheeks and suck to your mouth but they still like to move around in there! You can feel them wiggle a bunch and you can definitely feel their suction sometimes but then you just chop them up and swallow. : ) Delish! We also had some grilled croacker (yum!) and broiled shrimp!

Here's a video of me eating the squirming octopus!


Later we went back to the Coex. We walked around a bit more and decided to go to the food court again on the first floor of the Hyundai Department Store. They have the most insane selection of food and TREATS there!! I got a cream puff there. It was baked fresh (like 20mins before I bought it) and they pump the cream right when you buy it. It's similar to Beard Papas in NYC but a million times better!! Seriously, they were delicious!! My mom would have eaten like 20 of them! They were selling out like crazy and people had to wait for batches to cool. Koreans sure love their sweets!

Later, Will and I were walking around and realized that there was a casino in the Intercontinental Hotel which was in the Coex. At this point, we were just so tired of walking around (our feet have never been so tired in our lives walking everywhere in this town!) so we decided to check out the casino. It was pretty small but that's because it is only open to foreigners. You have to show them your passport before you go in. The casino is really pretty but it's kind of strange because it's REALLY quiet. No one is really talking or laughing and everyone plays quietly. No shouting "money money money" or anything like that. Anyways, Will & I played BlackJack for quite a bit just for fun. At one point we were down, then we were up by a bunch and then we left losing about $40 so it was no big deal. It was just fun playing!

Later that evening we went out to dinner with another one of Will's aunts/uncles. This time it was with Will's uncle and their three kids. They were so sweet and brought me flowers and Will Korean movies. Their oldest daughter in college speaks English pretty well so that was fun for me because I didn't have to use Will as a translator. They treated us to a very fancy seafood dinner with tons of sashimi. It's funny because each family member wants to treat us to a nice dinner and so there's always weird delicacies. It's very thoughtful of them. Last night they had both sea worm (raw) and sea squirt (raw). I tried the sea worm (which looks like a penis cut up) and disliked it so much that I was not feeling adventurous enough to try the sea squirt. I was too embarrassed to spit it out so I just smiled and ate it! Here's a picture of Will's aunt and uncle and one of their kids. Their family was super nice and friendly!

Tomorrow: ROAD TRIP!

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