Sik Gaek Korean BBQ - Live Octopus Dish =(

Jack_Lucas

Blue Ring
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Jan 28, 2013
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went to this place in queens NY they sell dishes with live octopus on them...

begged them to sell me the octopus alive in a bag that I could take with me and they refused.

they thought I was from animal rights group and they asked me to kindly leave.

check out these videos: (any idea on the species?)



!

I wonder where they are sourcing these??
 
I tried to watch to see if I could get a species hint but just could not distance myself enough to watch much. DaveLin was able to source a few from the local Korean market (VA/Washington DC) awhile back and I would say they look similar (his may be a good bit larger, hard to tell). After showing up several times and talking with the market people he did learn that they were shipped in from Korea in extremely cold liquid oxygen. His thread is well worth the read.

We tried to find live octopus at Korean restaurants/markets here but have only found frozen. It may exist but is kept under low profile to avoid complaints.
 
hmm... I can't comment on the species, but that's not really my interest here (sorry!).

I think it's interesting that the octopuses are trying to escape but don't seem to respond to the heat itself (more likely they are responding to tactile stimulation from various strange textures and being out of seawater). Let me say (hint, rather), that having recently looked into this in some detail, I don't see a lot of evidence that they respond to noxious heat stimulation (and hopefully I have some published evidence of that soon... :wink:). No response to extreme heat is not at all unusual for aquatic animals.

This, however, I find sickening:
That link comes with a 'disturbing content' warning. Live squid sashimi. Not nice.

Jack - those octopuses are probably in terrible health but if you want to try one, why not just go in and order the dish? It looks like they come in a side container (and you tip in onto the dish), from which you could probably bag one and rescue it. Not sure if it would survive the trauma though...
 
Robyn,
Jacques Cousteau mentions the same observation in Octopus and Squid The Soft Intelligence. If you need me to, I will look for the reference but it is where he talks about taking torches into the water and the octos burn themselves to a point where they decided to disengage.

Whether the animal suffers or not, I feel mental anguish when a food animal is not killed quickly and cannot understand why this is appealing to others. I eat most anything but I highly disagree with those who say you should not eat it if you are not willing to kill it yourself. It is the "show" that I find nauseating.
 
DWhatley;196697 said:
Robyn,
Whether the animal suffers or not, I feel mental anguish when a food animal is not killed quickly and cannot understand why this is appealing to others. I eat most anything but I highly disagree with those who say you should not eat it if you are not willing to kill it yourself. It is the "show" that I find nauseating.

well said.
 
Jack_Lucas;196708 said:
well said.

I agree - even if the animal does not feel the heat itself, it is certainly stressed and in extremis at that point. The spectacle of it all is pretty appalling, and why people would laugh and poke at the animal while it dies is beyond me. I think it's interesting that in the video you can hear the diners seeking to convince themselves that it doesn't actually have a nervous system (idiots!).

D - that passage you mention in The Soft Intelligence is quoted in one of my review papers on ethical treatment of cephalopods, and is one of the few pieces of evidence (anecdotal though it is), of what exactly is noxious or distressing to cephalopods.
 
robyn;196709 said:
D - that passage you mention in The Soft Intelligence is quoted in one of my review papers on ethical treatment of cephalopods, and is one of the few pieces of evidence (anecdotal though it is), of what exactly is noxious or distressing to cephalopods.

As is bleach, according to one of Cousteau's divers.

Clem
 

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