After saying I’m going to blog the present I’m going to take you back over a week to last Friday (03/11/2006)

Having promised to take Kat for Galbi since she arrived I arranged to meet with Caroline after Kat finished work and head to a Galbi restaurant – Galbi is probably my favourite traditional Korean food.

Galbi is a traditional Korean dish usually of seasoned Pork or Beef that is cooked BBQ style at your table. You eat it by wrapping a small piece of meat in a lettuce leaf and adding seasoning as desired. You are usually given a tiny bowl of salt mixed with soy sauce, some hot red pepper paste (you get this everywhere), and garlic along with other side dishes depending on the restaurant..

But all was not as it seemed…. Having the now familiar ordering problem (no pictures) and the Koreans not understanding what we said when we asked for Galbi (despite saying it the same way the Koreans do!) we ended up with some kind of pork, but not seasoned like normal Galbi! It was still good and we soon polished off a plate, but whilst we were eating Katrina and Caroline spied something that looked good on a nearby table. From my seat I couldn’t see what it was, but they assured me it looked good: “Like crispy pork of beef, from the Chinese,” Kat said. I agreed that I liked the sound of it so we pointed to the table and asked for some of that.

Five minutes later the waitress, looking worried, appeared with a plate of uncooked meat in a red sauce. She paused, before she putting on our grill, as if to ask if we were still sure we wanted it. She scraped the meat onto the grill and began spreading it out. Dumbstruck, Kat, Caroline and I looked at each other before anyone dared to speak: “Is that what it looks like,” I asked? Sure enough it was; we had just ordered a portion of chickens feet! Euuuaaaggghhhhh!! After much hilarity taking pictures of each other posing with a chickens foot in our chopsticks we realsied we had to at least eat some of it.

I really didn’t want to eat one but knew that if i didn’t I would forever wish I has tried one. Caroline being brave went first and reported back on the taste. “It’s fine'” was about all she could manage. Next Kat managed to get one down without being too grossed out. Then it was my turn. I picked up a small one in my chopsticks trying not to think about what it was. The longer I looked at it and thought about it the less chance I had of actually eating it! Quickly I put it in my mouth and began chewing, and chewing, and chewing, and chewing. The taste was fine, it didn’t really taste of anything and the sauce was really spicy so that was the only thing you could really taste. Bit it was really chewy, kind of like eating gristle. Eventually I swallowed it and can now say I have eaten chicken feet! Yuck!

After eating just four between us we sent them away and decided we needed something tasty to finish up with. Getting out the phrase book and pointing to Galbi we managed to give Kat her first taste of proper Galbi, and mighty fine it was too…especially after chickens feet!!

The following morning I woke up after dreaming about eating chickens feet. Then as I realsied I had actually eaten them the night before, I felt sick. Speaking to Caroline and Kat they both had similar experiences of being more grossed out the following morning than at the time!!!

At least we can say we tried. And it’s one random food to tick off the list and remember never to eat again!!!

* Posted by j150vsc on 13/11/2006.