C For Cuttlefish

On Friday, we had the urge to get drunk, but also wanted to be relatively fresh on Saturday to continue exploring Seoul. We decided to plan a very bizarre and entertaining experience combining a few different ingredients. The backbone of this plan, was to visit our first Korean cinema, an entertaining experience in itself. Add to this, copious amounts of beer and soju beforehand, and a packet of peanut buttered dried squid, and much hilarity can ensue. The film in question was V For Vendetta, and we were fairly lucky to have something decent to watch, as the Korean film board still impose a regulation that each cinema must show at least 80% Korean films. So we were certainly lucky that the choice wasn't between Runaway Bride 2 and the latest Freddie Prinze Jr and Julia Stiles teen rom-com which is bound to exist somewhere.

For those that have seen the film, you will know that it's pretty good, but due to the soju I can hardly give any kind of review. It was very funny, however, to see on the menu right next to the regular stuff like popcorn and nachos, the aforementioned Buttered Cuttlefish!

This was obiously an open invitation to choose the absurd, and at just over £1 a pop it really had to be done. I notice now that I could have sampled some chestnuts, that's my snack sorted for next time! By the time we sat down we were really quite drunk, and as I'd noticed on previous occasions, the soju has a tendency to give you a permanent grin accompanied by ridiculous giggling. Therefore with every bite of dried squid (will I never learn?), I couldn't contain my laughter at how disgusting it was, and forced myself to scoff most of it in some episode of drunken masochism. Peanuts and dry fish, what an enticing combination. To make things even worse, I was picking bits of vileness out of my teeth for the next 2 days.


As you can see from the remains, I did a pretty decent job of polishing it off, and with this very practical packaging I'm sure I could send some to anyone who is interested. In other food-related news, we made a disappointing discovery in one of our local Kimbab shops. They are the really dirt cheap Korean restaurants we use quite a lot. I stirred this free soup we always get with our meal, only for it to let one of its treasures float up from within, a nice severed octupus tentacle. Since then the soup hasn't had the same appeal, but at least it's free!