San Nak Ji

[Dave (imported)]

San Nak Ji or maybe spelled Sannakji is what the "Chef's Versus City" guys had to eat tonight.

It's live octopus about 12 inches long, picked LIVE and fighting from the tank like picking your lobster for dinner (a lot cleaner water) and then eating the tentacles raw while they still squirm. A little dipping sauce on the side... Now I've had octopus stewed in tomato sauce with pasta but never (lord help me) raw and wiggling and sucking. Squid, octopus and cuttlefish are good but I want them DEAD, DEAD. DEAD!

There's a website that says:

“San Nak Ji” or live octopus is a popular delicacy in Korea and Japan. The enjoyment of eating this food is when the octopus is still moving with the tentacles sticking to the roof of the mouth. The challenge is to munch and swallow the live octopus without choking. It is reported that there are on average of 6 deaths due to choking (on live octopus), each year in South Korea.