Dog, or the eating thereof

Yes, I ate dog.

I know, now I'm never, ever going to hear the end of it from you guys.

But let's get down to the meat-and-potatoes of this (HA! Get it? Mean and potatoes? Ha . . ..) - how was it? Well -

Backstory - This is how it went down; Seoul still has a very, very small foreigner community for a city this size. And being one of a handful of people who are foreign, I get talking to a few other American/Canadian teachers about eating dog, and some are for it and some are not.

Anyhow, Leah's best friend in Korea, Jenna, is leaving soon - next weekend, in fact - and she's been wanting to eat dog since we got here.

So Leah, Jenna, and I go to a little dog place around the corner - we've been asking around if anyone knows if there's a good place for it, and no one knows - so Leah suggests going to a place around where Jenna lives, close to Leah's (I live about an hour away from where Leah lives, more on that later) - it's new, and it's big. I'm kinda weary of new places in Seoul(there are overnight operations everywhere here), but whatever - I agree and go with them.

We walk in, and this solid wall of . . . funk hits us. It's not quite wet dog as you'd expect, but it's a weird mesh of burning-rancid-something that just doesn't scream "hygienic and delicious". I mean, dog's supposedly nutritious, right(well, I suppose y'all prolly don't know - yes, it is; and as all things Asian, it's also supposedly an aphrodisiac/assist in virility)?

Well, whatever - we're on a mission, damnit; and I'd be damned if I don't complete said mission. We plop down, hoping against hope that we get used to the funk (we don't) and order dog and a coke.

The coke came first.

Anyhow, the dog (stew):

As you can see, it's just a stew of sorts with meat and assorted vegetables. Due to the aforementioned funk, however, Jenna and I just picked at the meat and had some, and promptly got out. Leah was going to try a piece, but the smell got to her, so it was a no-go. By the way, the stew smelled fine, so it wasn't that.

Honestly, it's nothing outstanding about dog meat that would scream, well, I dunno, "woof" maybe?

It's just meat, dammit!

Oddly enough, though, it wasn't the meat that bothered me - it was the fat; there were some fatty pieces there, but thinking that the fat came from a dog somewhat disturbed me. I can't wrap my head around why dog fat would do that, but well, it did.

Anyhow, overall - I would give dog meat a . . . well, I can't tell. Like I said before, the funk was so overpowering
that I don't think it'd be fair to give the meat a rating at this time. However, for the restaurant, I'd give it a 3/10.

To fairly assess dog, I think I will have to try again sometime, at a different place.

(On a sidenote, Leah wants to get a dog when we go back. To keep as a pet, not eat. I think I'm down with that. I wonder what it'd say if it knew that I ate one of its kind.

Probably "woof".)