노란개 The Yellow Dog

Got a real treat for you all today.  Literally.  And this one has been a long time coming.

I’ve  lived in Korea for a total of about six years now, not including some time spent back home.  And in those years I’ve done a lot, and learned a lot.  But there were, and are, still things that I haven’t gotten around to, like eating dog meat, for example.  Thankfully, I solved that problem yesterday.

Yes…I ate some dog.  Here is a picture of the kind of dog I ate (called ‘yellow dog’ in Korean)–a breed that is bred specifically for being eaten, and one which is also known as ‘shit dog’ due to its ability to survive through “recycling” when times get hard:

the hardy yellow dog

And in Korea, there were lots of times when times got hard in years gone by. That’s why Korean cuisine includes just about everything that is even remotely edible. The dogs, of course, didn’t escape.

In recent years, selling dog meat has become illegal due to international pressure exerted mostly by the influence of animal rights groups. I guess those groups don’t take on the beef industry as well because those guys have their own lobby groups. But I digress, and in any case most laws here are only sporadically enforced, so most dog meat restaurants simply ignore the whole thing. Anyone who wants a little more history on the issue though can find it here.

Mindy (whom I had to drag out of bed, which is why she is wearing a hat), Gi-hyuk, a guy we call Jengi ajosshi and myself went to this restaurant at my behest, as I had mentioned it last week, and these guys set about finding a good place. They found one, and so, off we went.  And because they got to the restaurant and ordered before I did,  this is the sight that greeted me when I arrived:

cooked in front of you on a propane burner that is built into the table

the happy dog meat eaters

click to enlarge

Contrary to what you might expect, dog meat is very tender. Would you like to know why? Well, I’ll tell you anyway, and really it doesn’t have anything to do with the nature of dog meat itself, but rather the way in which it is prepared for consumption. That is to say, the way it is killed. After hearing the details of how this is accomplished, although some sources claim that what I am about to write is not the case anymore, I began to understand why even Koreans say it is a cruel business.

First the dog is strung up live. Next it is beaten with a large stick (these days I’m told a piece of aluminum pipe is preferred due to its light weight but metallic hardness) to soften the muscles. The beating continues until the dog is dead–which takes quite a while they say–and long after, until all of the tough muscles are softened. Mindy says that she has had the distinct displeasure of  hearing this process take place as a child, and the memory of the sound the dogs  made when beaten still sticks with her to this day. It’s the reason she doesn’t usually eat dog meat, she says. She was prepared to make an exception for me though:

Yeah. That’s a dog’s rib. I cleaned one up and took it home with me for a souvenir. No joke. I did that because it’s unlikely I will be eating dog again, and that is because of the other reason Mindy doesn’t usually eat it: It really isn’t very good.

Firstly, it stinks. In fact dog meat is famous for it’s peculiar stink, which many Koreans love, but which really is the kind of thing that people either will leave or take. I didn’t like it much at all because, along with the smell, it had an unpleasant cloying taste–especially the fat. I couldn’t eat the skin, or rind if you like, at all. And here is why (click to enlarge):

dog skin, with some liver mixed in

It’s just as well I didn’t too. After we left the restaurant, Jengi ajosshi became very ill, went home, and did a lot of vomiting. Mindy also took exception to it and her stomach gave her problems. Gi-hyuk and I were fine though, oddly. I don’t know if this was because the meat was bad, or if it was just that dog shouldn’t be eaten unless absolutely necessary.

When most of the meat was eaten, the restaurant owner took the pan and mixed in some rice with the meat juice to make this:

It was actually pretty tasty, so the whole thing wasn’t a complete loss.

It’s a dog.