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Gladiator
Joined: 23 May 2003
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 3:50 am Post subject: A grotesque sight indeed |
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Six years in Korea and fairly desensitized to grotesque and outlandish visions attacking my senses from all angles but this one's worthy of mention.
Has anyone been to Yangjae Dong lately, specifically the street that runs up to the four way intersection of Yangjae station? At the beginning of this section of road by Maebong station there is one of those ubiquitous 'speciality' restaurants that abound in Korea. It's speciality is live crab, absolutely ENORMOUS ones (including legspan totalling about two feet in circumference and probably weighing 7-8 pounds each with massive chunky shells)obviously plucked from the depths of the pacific.
Anyway, the restaurant had one of those narrow transparent water holding tanks mounted on the pavement outside presumably to 'attract' potential customers and it was absolutely JAM PACKED with these huge ocean creatures compressed together so tightly they couldn't move independently but kick their long spikey legs weakly in the manner of liberated Auschwitz survivors still in shock. Their legs were in fact meshed together in one solid wall of moving crusty crab meat; a gruesome mosiac of cruetly (I reckon there must have been at least two hundered creatures in each tank). I instantly took out my mobile phone and videoed about thirty seconds of footage (wish I had the means to post it as a media/video file) and it truly is first division in visual horror; like a Ridley Scott creation (it brought to mind the packed seething Alien nests). One creature had actually been crushed into a leggy, gooey paste at the bottom of the tank by the pressure.
If you have a chance go out and see it.
Nothing could have put me off dinner or killed my appetite more effectively than that. |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks for the reminder, I'm going to eat crab for dinner sometime this week. |
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chronicpride
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:43 am Post subject: Re: A grotesque sight indeed |
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| Gladiator wrote: |
Six years in Korea and fairly desensitized to grotesque and outlandish visions attacking my senses from all angles but this one's worthy of mention.
Has anyone been to Yangjae Dong lately, specifically the street that runs up to the four way intersection of Yangjae station? At the beginning of this section of road by Maebong station there is one of those ubiquitous 'speciality' restaurants that abound in Korea. It's speciality is live crab, absolutely ENORMOUS ones (including legspan totalling about two feet in circumference and probably weighing 7-8 pounds each with massive chunky shells)obviously plucked from the depths of the pacific.
Anyway, the restaurant had one of those narrow transparent water holding tanks mounted on the pavement outside presumably to 'attract' potential customers and it was absolutely JAM PACKED with these huge ocean creatures compressed together so tightly they couldn't move independently but kick their long spikey legs weakly in the manner of liberated Auschwitz survivors still in shock. Their legs were in fact meshed together in one solid wall of moving crusty crab meat; a gruesome mosiac of cruetly (I reckon there must have been at least two hundered creatures in each tank). I instantly took out my mobile phone and videoed about thirty seconds of footage (wish I had the means to post it as a media/video file) and it truly is first division in visual horror; like a Ridley Scott creation (it brought to mind the packed seething Alien nests). One creature had actually been crushed into a leggy, gooey paste at the bottom of the tank by the pressure.
If you have a chance go out and see it.
Nothing could have put me off dinner or killed my appetite more effectively than that. |
The worst place for that kind of scene is Yeongdeok Daege, north of Pohang. It's the snow crab center of Korea and hordes of Koreans go there to pay as much as 100-150K won for a meal for these crabs. Mind you, you can buy them cheaper at the market in the center of all the crab selling action. All of the restaurants lining the streets leading up to the crab market are full of massive crab PR and some of the ajummas are so aggressive that they'll walk right in front of the cars to get you to stop and try to steer you into their restaurant instead of the 30-40 other identical ones on the street. The glass aquariums of every one of these places are absolutely jam-packed with crabs, and upon taking a closer look, it's totally obvious that most are dead by that point.
 [/url] |
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ed4444
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| Most of the times I have gotten crab in Korea it has been so covered in Gochu-jang that I couldn't taste the crabmeat anyway. Makes me wonder how anyone could identify gourmet crab other than by marketing/location. |
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jacl
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:36 am Post subject: |
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| Oh no! Crab cruelty! Call PETA! |
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Big Mac
Joined: 17 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:23 am Post subject: |
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| Somehow the thought of crowded lobster tanks doesn't have the same impact on me as seeing a small cage filled with five or six yellow dogs on the back of a motorcycle. That bothers me. |
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kangnam mafioso
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Location: Teheranno
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:20 pm Post subject: |
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6 years in korea and a tank filled with seafood is giving you a panic attack? geeze. don't go to norangjin seafood market in seoul or garakji in pusan !!
crab is my favorite korean dish ... gokae-tang/ jim ... hmmmm. |
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chronicpride
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:02 pm Post subject: |
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| I remember stumbling through a bustling street market one day in my first year here and happened across the livestock area, with chickens crammed on top of each other in cages, and a table with a freshly de-skinned dog and the pile of skin and fur next to it. That set the bar for me. Anything less than that experience, I seem to have been able to shrug off. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:16 pm Post subject: |
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I can go to the fish market or Loblaws or Loeb (large supermarkets) and see exactly the same thing- except that there are lobsters jammed in the tank.
But Koreans actually do this to crabs?
Those monsters!!!
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periwinkle
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I saw a squid trying to get out of his tank the other day- it was hilarious! He would rocket out of the water and then hit the tank cover repeatedly. I felt sorry for him, actually. I've never seen anything like it. Man, he wanted out of that tank something fierce... |
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crazykiwi
Joined: 07 Jun 2003
Location: new zealand via daejeon
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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have you ever seen the discovery channels " worlds most dangerous jobs" series on the crab fisherman. if you want to see cramped conditions for crabs, just check out the holing tanks on those boats. thousand upon thousand of crabs on top of one another.
whoop di do. its a crab. he will be placed in a pot of boiling hot water very soon or should we gas them first, to be more humane. death is death, having a massive crab orgy or a pot of water. i know which one id choose. |
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jacl
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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The horror!
I hear those crab fishing jobs can pay good quid. Also hear that those companies can screw you out of a lot of cash, too. |
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chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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| When the catch them on the crab boats they each have their own private room and recreational director that plans activities for them. It's a modern day love boat. |
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Wrench
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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| jacl wrote: |
The horror!
I hear those crab fishing jobs can pay good quid. Also hear that those companies can screw you out of a lot of cash, too. |
The money you get from it is dependant on the catch.. |
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mateomiguel
Joined: 16 May 2005
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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how do you know crabs don't enjoy the close company of other crabs? What if they're all singing some sort of crab version of techno in a subaural range through water and its like a constant party in there? One crab is like "ahh, great, i finally got someone to scratch that itch under my back chitin" and the other one's like "dude, i love the view I'm getting of your claw, if you know what I mean!"
If you're going to make stuff up about crab feelings, why not make something fun? |
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