I Rescued a Baby Octopus But Ate His Cousin

First, after half hour into the trip or so we stopped at this place.
I thought we had arrived. I mean, the building was huge and there were businesses everywhere - the beach right over there...and so many people. Nope. This was a Rest Stop! The bathrooms were huge and clean. But what sets this rest stop apart from the others is they sell really great food here! Cheap too! We got some fried potatoes - homefries style. Then got back on the road.

We arrived at this restaurant and let me tell you! This is fresh seafood! Your food is outside, swimming in tanks waiting to be devoured. We had a little of everything! I had always wanted to eat live baby octopus. I had seen this on the TV a long time ago on one of my mother's Korean news shows. It intrigued me, and if you don't know by now, I am a bit of a food adventurer!

The baby octopus was cleaned, then hacked into pieces. It squirmed all over the plate! When you grabbed a piece with your chopstick, it squirmed violently! Then it suckered itself to the chopstick...this is going to be great!

In my mouth...chew fast! If you don't chew fast, the octopus sticks to your throat and it is a very disturbing feeling. I tried this...I just slowly swallowed and felt the tentacle sucker inside my mouth...then barely hanging on in my throat. Then...it was gone in the black hole that is my stomach!


The octopus is soft, chewy and has this fresh nothing taste. The sesame seed oil you put on it is what makes the dish... and the fact that the octopus is VERY fresh.
Here are the baby octopus in the holding tank.
We also had sashimi, various sea worms - which tasted the same as the baby octopus, clams, oysters, crab...uh basically, you name the seafood and we ate it. Except, Lobster and salmon. You get my drift right? Just look at this picture!Here are some sea worms above and fresh, raw fish below. I forgot the type of fish this was. Very clean taste.

Above is a stew they make from all the left overs from your meal - the seafood meal that keeps on giving! By this point I was going to burst!

After our meal we walked around the various merchants. I saw some baby octopus that had fallen onto the ground. They crawled out of their water bucket in a doomed escape attempt. I grabbed one - so cute and delicious!- and he stuck to my hand. I put my hand in the water bucket and he swam off. We found two more escapees and returned them to their delicious doom. Then we went home, full - VERY full of seafood.

While it was one of the most amazing meals I have had...I am tired of seafood. Maybe, when you have had the best - you don't desire anything else. Below are pictures of some of the merchant offerings.