Thursday, March 13, 2008

Pig cheek?

I realize that a large portion of my blog entries have to do with questionable cuisine choices; this entry is no different. That's all part and parcel of living in or traveling to new and different countries. In Australia, some people eat kangaroo. In Vietnam, I saw cat on the menu. Here in Korea, I've sampled dog stew. Now I know that it's easy to judge my choices based on America's conception of which animals are "politically correct" to eat, but to some people, eating deer or hot dogs/brats is disgusting. I do have my own "line", just as everyone should. No matter how open minded culturally I try to be, I still couldn't bring myself to eat live octopus. I guess there's just something about it being alive in my mouth that I couldn't bear.

Anyway, I was invited to another strange sounding dinner--one of pig cheek. I guess in America we are "specific" with naming certain parts of animals as well: pork loin, chicken breast, thigh, rump roast, etc...but I guess I just never considered eating an animal's cheek. It creates quite a visual, doesn't it? Anyway, it was good. I wouldn't have known the difference between that and any other part of the pig. It was a good night out with two fun Korean workmates, Seung Han and In Seo.




Korean restaurants definitely follow the "Function over form" rule. Some Koreans think that the shittier the interior of the restaurant, the better the food will be. I read that there's something about remodeling that's bad luck.
Throwing the pig cheek on the grill
Look closely! It's Seung Han's picture! He was on the wall at a local bar--he must be a regular.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fred and Lincoln were very relieved to hear you didn't sample cat in Vietnam, even though you could have. Meow!

6:48 AM  
Blogger Derek said...

No judging here. If I were in another country I would try my best to sample their, ah, culture! I agree though, no living, moving things. Must not have a pulse before I think about eating it.

11:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't believe you haven't updated this blog since March! What am I supposed to read while I'm at work??

1:39 AM  
Blogger stella said...

Will we be moving on from the pig cheek soon?!!

Love you!

7:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Shannon I am your student Kim chan ho. You may feel astonished at my sudden visit.
Last night I've inputted "your name+korea" onto yahoo search engine and found this blog.
Would you mind my seeing your entries?
Why I've searched you on the web is that I'd been curious to know how you like your livng in Korea, and what you think of the korean people like me:>
I haven't read any in this blog yet except this post, if you are o.k then I will see them.

9:30 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home