It was bound to happen sooner or later. I mean, when you live in a foreign country, with mostly foreign food, you're going to have to eat some stuff and not know exactly what's in it. For almost ten months I've been putting weird and foreign things into my mouth with no horrific side effects, and most of the ingredients (that I know of) have been relatively normal. I mean, I ate the worm larvae, didn't I?
But today I ate something in my culinary innocence that I would not have eaten otherwise, had I known what was in it. The Korean "sun-dae" or "soon-dae" as they pronounce it. It's like a sausage, with noodles inside. I was having a small party with one of my classes because they'd finished their book. The two girls came in all excited, because they'd bought sun-dae and dukbogi (spicy dish with a rice product in it).
I like sausage, and I like noodles, so after asking them what it was, and learning that it was just a korean sausage-like dish, in the spirit of adventure I tried some. I've encountered many many dishes here that I've grown obsessions for in this way, so I was all prepared to get a new favorite food here.
It tasted...not bad, but just a little bit off. The wrapping looked suspiciously intestinal in appearance, and while I accept that many sausages are made this way, this dish tasted particularly intestine-y. The noodles were noodles, nothing surprising, but it was the dark reddish-brown sauce in with them that tasted just a little strange, and was unsettling me somewhat.
You can see where I'm going with this.
Many exotic foods can only be appreciated after a couple of tries (for example, pearl tea), so I had a few more. But I wasn't feeling any more comfortable with it, so I let it go after the third or fourth piece. I felt deep down in my heart (and stomach) that "sun-dae" was meant to be tried in the presence of my other American/European friends, perhaps on a dare.
My Korean coworker confirmed my fears after class. Indeed "sun-dae" is a sausage made with noodles and pigs' blood. And intestinal lining.
Ah well. It shouldn't have really grossed me out; I saw the documentary on hot dogs back in the day. I think it was the bloody noodles that did me in :-) That's not to say I wouldn't have tried it, but I would have braced myself for it, and perhaps done a victory dance afterwards =_=
PS. This video is TOO CUTE:
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