It had to come eventually, especially after the san nakji on dalk galbi video.
The folks at PETA have been picketing two New York restaurants for serving san nakji, that moving octopus dish. Now, we jokingly call it “live” octopus, but the creature is already dead before reaching the table, swiftly dispatched by the chef–an end that is likely a lot less painful and prolonged than most of our own ends will be. And it’s a lot more humane than what happens to them in nature.
I’m a supporter of animal rights, despite what some of you may think. Cruelty pisses me off, whether it be factory farming, beating a dog for adrenaline in its meat or subjecting the public to another Sex and the City movie. But when PETA pulls these stunts, they hurt not only their cause but the real change that the rest of us are trying to create in making our world more humane for all creatures.
I also think that it is cowardly to target ethnic restaurants. They already are dealing with a huge challenge of making it in a foreign land in the cutthroat restaurant industry. These are not rich people. They don’t have the luxury to take a day off to picket other businesses.
Yet the most despicable aspect is the cultural chauvenism this displays. The arrogance of forcing one’s narrow-minded eating habits on other cultures! I mean, imagine if Koreans went out and protested restaurants in Korea that were serving American beef…
Oh yeah…
Well, in the meantime, here’s some video of Chef Ben eating his first san nakji.
[HT to Chef Cathlyn Choi]
If these PETA folks were intellectually honest, they would be picketing in front of every lobster restaurant in Nantucket and San Francisco….but most PETA types are acting with a moral compass or with sound science and rules of logic. It’s pure emotion and attention making stunts.
Ha! Well Joe, Koreans protesting U.S. beef is not chauvenism per se because they aren’t telling anyone else to not eat it.. just that Koreans shouldn’t eat it… 😉
But it’s okay for Americans to eat their own diseased meat… just as long as they don’t shove it down the Korean’s throats!
The protests in Seoul have very little to do with “diseased meat” and everything to do with Anti-American sentiments by the protest organizers. The Chosun Ilbo wrote a lengthy article outing the organizers as well-known North Korean Communist sympathizers (one of them had gone to jail in the 90’s for writing a pro-North Korea song). The organizers of those protests were attention seekers just like the PETA folks are. Those protests were an embarrassment to Korean-Americans on this side of the Pacific who knew that their brethren in Korea were being duped by propaganda, not facts.
After all, where were the massive demonstrations against the Chinese importing contaminated kimchi, milk and other products that actually killed people?!
Peta is definitely a joke, they should start hiring smarter people.