Year 1 - Dog Day Afternoon

Howdy

Not much new to talk about. I am moving August 3rd. For some reason our director is making us all move to new apartments further away. Ours is not to reason why. Typically, she asked us if we wanted to leave our apartments. We are spread out between 3 buildings. None of us wanted to. Next she wanted us to look at a building and see if we would like it. We still didn't want to move. Next she tells us we are moving. To a building a 20 minute walk away. During the hottest days of summer.

Yesterday was the middle of the "dog days of summer" as we call it in the west. In Korea it is the second of 3 days to eat dog. The first day was 2 weeks ago, 2nd yesterday, the third is at the end of the hottest days of summer in 2-3 weeks. So, I ate some dog.

The dish is called Boshintang. Basically, dog soup. I went with 3 other westerners and 2 Koreans. Hilda, Dave, and John had planned on doing this for 2 weeks. BumSuk and a friend of his chose the place and were taking them there. My plans with Eun Young got cancelled due to her hangover so I figured what the hell.

It was disappointing. I had expected it to taste as good as other dishes I had. However, it was kind of bland, and a little fatty. Some of the fatty meat was skin. As spicy dishes go it was medium, and had WAY to much green onion in it. Dog meat tastes kind of like goat and is a bit gamey. It was very tender though. We also got some boiled dog that gets dipped in a spicy sauce. The boshingtang could have been spicier. While it wasn't the worst tasting dish I have ever had, it isn't something I would go out of my way to get. It was average and the taste doesn't warrant it.

While the food was disappointing the experience wasn't. When I get the pictures from BumSuk I will show you some of them. I was the first to dig into my meal. Hilda and Dave just kind of watched at first before trying it. Dave was pretty queasy. Once they had some, and the faces were finished, they were able to joke about it. Before that they didn't want to hear ANY jokes. We had a few bottles of soju with the meal.

The Koreans at the restaurant treated us like Celebrities at first. All the staff was greeting us, and they all said goodbye. They don't get many westerners there, and wanted to show their appreciation at us at least trying boshingtang before condemning it, or them, like a lot of people do. They made us feel comfortable. We were told that Older Koreans, and some of the younger generation, believe that eating dog boosts your stamina. I also ran into some new friends, friends of Eun Young, that I met the night before. Like I said, the experience was better than the meal.

I wonder if the dogs will look at me differently when I go back to Canada in 3 months. :)


Take care,
Flint

*****

The reason for the move was the director had an argument with one of the apartment owners and didn't want to be giving him money anymore. It was a damn inconvenience.

Eating dog ... I lost a supposed friend back home because I ate dog. I guess they weren't actually a friend just an acquaintance.