Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MollyBloom]

...if there are any bazaars or markets in South Korea where one can buy endangered animal products, like hawksbill turtle shells or elephant tusks?

I was reading this article that stated that while Japan does not delve in this practice anymore, items can still be bought in South Korea. I was trying to think of where they would sell it. Would it be underground markets, or would they sell it in the open at markets, but just not advertise? You know, if you know someone, that sort of thing. You'd think they would crack down on that already.

[Faunaki]

I can't answer your question now but will ask my MIL who told me the other day that it used to be common to eat cat soup to cure bone disease.

[MollyBloom]

[billybrobby]

I was lucky enough to see two members of the highly endangered Felis Catus species just the other day. No doubt they had barely escaped the soup bowl and were on their way to rejoin with the last of their kind.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I once had a student whose 'job' as a boy was to go out and catch stray cats to bring home for his mom. She made cat soup out of them for her back pain.

[R-Seoul]

I remember some K-chick, who came from some shithole in the countryside, telling me that her father once killed the family cat with a hammer to make soup for her sick mother. Even though she was a child at the time she could still remember the pathetic wailings of the cat as her father pounded it in the head.

[i]

My wife (Korean) showed me a restaurant where they sold cat soup several years ago in Kwang Ju. It was in the back room of a music store. It's like they were embarassed to sell or eat it.
I ask my students if they like "go-yang-i tang" and they act like there is no such thing. Then I tell them I just love Kimchi Ice Cream.

[i]

Maybe the topic has been hijacked. But if you ask a wealthy old-timer, you might find out. I seem to remember that some Chinese Medicine shops carry some illegal stuff and you have to ask for it. It's like anything illegal here. You can get it, but you have to be able to ask for it and pay the price. 1 bear gallbladder please.
On a seperate note, people here use deer horn in Chinese medicine. So once I was going home and asked if I could bring some deer horns from home and sell at the Chinese pharmacy. I was told US deer horns are not acceptable to cure whatever the Asian horns cure. Rocket science I guess.

[warren pease]

Anyone ever see the movie "Gummo"?

[Kikomom]

No, but I will play for Gumbo.

Molly, find the makers of cat soup (they gave you lots of hints here) and they may tell you where to find the other exoctics you quest after. After all, if it's a passed-on tradition, they may know more.

It's kinda like a scavenger hunt.

Now would be a good time to tell my duck soup story. It was pretty much a day like today. Picture this: 3 sisters, age 7, 6, 4, sitting on the cellar steps seeing our 'pet' duck (that was a freebie brought home from bible camp one summer, many many moons ago) strung up by it's feet from the rafters--already dead, thank goodness. My dad, who had assembled us, says, "Kids, I'm gonna show you how to skin a duck."

[Scotticus]

[Kikomom]

[billybrobby]

[MollyBloom]

Thanks for the tips, but I still don't know who I should ask. Plus, I don't speak fluent Korean, so I don't know what I would say. I guess when I get back to Seoul I can look up some old K-friends and see if they know where to go, that is, if they aren't offended. I just think it would be cool to see some of the stuff they have at these places. Sorry if that's sadistic

[One2many]