The Dog Question

Brigitte Bardot, allez vous faire foutre, salope.

You're an American, right? When someone mentions Korea to you, do you imagine some light-brown guy at a table with a dog's paw hanging out of his mouth, its little pink pads and black claws still twitching in a gruesome death reflex?

Yes, some Koreans eat dog meat. I said it. Are you happy now? In fact, certain species of dog are considered "meat" dogs here. Yes, killing the dog can be an ugly process, sometimes done in a deliberately painful way to "release hormones" that improve the meat's flavor. Or so I've heard.

Anyway, the time has come to discover for myself what dog tastes like. As someone interested in Zen Buddhism, who has enjoyed occasional dialogue with Buddhist monastics, I guess I should be ashamed of this dog-eating urge. A dog is, at least in Buddhist reckoning, a "sentient being," in the sense that it has emotions. (Whether dogs are sentient in the sense that they possess self-consciousness, I have no clue.) So, for shame, Kevin.

The problem is this. I just discovered a dog stew restaurant not 50 yards from where I live, and I'm thinking about going there. Soon.

Dog is usually served as stew here, and euphemistically called "boshin-t'ang," which translates roughly as "health stew." I've been told that many unwitting Americans have come away from a boshin-t'ang session perfectly happy... right up until they're told what they just ate. Not one for surprises, I think the best course of action for yours truly is to enter a boshin-t'ang restaurant of my own free will.

I've heard things about dog stew. The taste is funny. The smell is funny. The meat has tiny little hairs poking through the fatty layer. None of this sounds promising, but I want to find out for myself what it's like to eat dog, and maybe answer a few questions for the reading public along the way.

What color is the stew? What exactly is the smell, the taste? How much does a serving cost? How exactly do they "process" the dogs, and what species of dog is it (I imagine a St. Bernard would be quite tasty... country-fried steak, anyone?)?

So in the next couple of weeks, I hope to report back with answers to all of the above. Stay tuned.