Seriously...do people really eat that?
September 15, 2010 5:49 PM Subscribe
In the movie "Blood and Bones," Takeshi Kitano plays a Korean, and in one scene prepares a container with chunks of pig.
Time passes in the film, and we see him a bit later opening up the container to expose a maggoty mess of bloody pork. He proceeds to serve himself a healthy dish of the stuff, eating it by blowing off the maggots and snarfing it down. Later in the film he forces a woman to eat the stuff... (he's been a bastard in some films but he's a real sonofabitch in this one...but I digress).
Anyways, my question(s): MeFites, my Google-fu hath failed me. Does such a Korean dish actually exist? What is it called? If it does, is it basically a form of kimchee? Is such a thing available today, within or even outside of Korea—and where if so?
Thank you for any information you can provide!
Time passes in the film, and we see him a bit later opening up the container to expose a maggoty mess of bloody pork. He proceeds to serve himself a healthy dish of the stuff, eating it by blowing off the maggots and snarfing it down. Later in the film he forces a woman to eat the stuff... (he's been a bastard in some films but he's a real sonofabitch in this one...but I digress).
Anyways, my question(s): MeFites, my Google-fu hath failed me. Does such a Korean dish actually exist? What is it called? If it does, is it basically a form of kimchee? Is such a thing available today, within or even outside of Korea—and where if so?
Thank you for any information you can provide!
I lived in Korea for several years. I can think of a few dishes that might be mistaken for what you describe, but I can't think of anything that matches. Do you have a photo or screenshot? "Kimchi," by the way, isn't used to describe meat dishes.
posted by smorange at 7:01 PM on September 15, 2010
posted by smorange at 7:01 PM on September 15, 2010
It's not entirely implausible - there are known "rotted" delicacies, such as rotted shark fin, century eggs, and maggoty cheese - but is it possible that this is just meant as a character penchant to make him seriously freaky?
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 7:24 PM on September 15, 2010
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 7:24 PM on September 15, 2010
Response by poster: "Kimchi," by the way, isn't used to describe meat dishes.
Ah, sorry—I should have looked it up on Wikipedia first and I could have cleared up that confusion. I guess I had some idea that the term referred to a general class of fermented foodstuffs, and I was probably mixing the idea up with the banchan that I've gotten at Korean restaurants—which in my experience usually has something with seafood (probably bokkeum?)—with kimchi.
Do you have a photo or screenshot?
I poked around a bit and found this, look about a third of the way down the page. Warning, the link is maybe not work-safe—a wee bit of nudity and a few violent images.
By the way, the Japanese viewer that wrote that page also doesn't know what it is, the caption below the pic says something like "What could this be? Seems like it's rotted pork...with maggots writhing around."
I haven't seen the movie (I'm curious now)
Yeah—this is a bit of a digression, and I also don't want to stir up any possible cross-cultural antagonism (I'm a fan of both Korean and Japanese culture, for what it's worth, but I know far less about Korean culture currently), but I'm really curious about how accurately the film portrays Korean culture and Korean cultural experience in Japan, which is what it's about. I really don't get the feeling that the film intended to denigrate Korean culture in any way, but I also am neither Korean or Japanese so don't have much of a clue of how it would be perceived on a more sophisticated level by someone growing up in either culture.
Anyways, again, definitely a digression from the main question...carry on please...
posted by dubitable at 9:51 PM on September 15, 2010
Ah, sorry—I should have looked it up on Wikipedia first and I could have cleared up that confusion. I guess I had some idea that the term referred to a general class of fermented foodstuffs, and I was probably mixing the idea up with the banchan that I've gotten at Korean restaurants—which in my experience usually has something with seafood (probably bokkeum?)—with kimchi.
Do you have a photo or screenshot?
I poked around a bit and found this, look about a third of the way down the page. Warning, the link is maybe not work-safe—a wee bit of nudity and a few violent images.
By the way, the Japanese viewer that wrote that page also doesn't know what it is, the caption below the pic says something like "What could this be? Seems like it's rotted pork...with maggots writhing around."
I haven't seen the movie (I'm curious now)
Yeah—this is a bit of a digression, and I also don't want to stir up any possible cross-cultural antagonism (I'm a fan of both Korean and Japanese culture, for what it's worth, but I know far less about Korean culture currently), but I'm really curious about how accurately the film portrays Korean culture and Korean cultural experience in Japan, which is what it's about. I really don't get the feeling that the film intended to denigrate Korean culture in any way, but I also am neither Korean or Japanese so don't have much of a clue of how it would be perceived on a more sophisticated level by someone growing up in either culture.
Anyways, again, definitely a digression from the main question...carry on please...
posted by dubitable at 9:51 PM on September 15, 2010
I've never heard of this. Preserved and even slightly fermented fish and meats are common, but that sounds like a character quirk, not an accurate representation of anything. Did you think that vomit was a traditional Japanese dish when you saw Audition?
Btw, banchan refers to any small side dish, not just seafood. Bokkeum refers to a cooking method.
posted by peachfuzz at 10:05 PM on September 15, 2010
Btw, banchan refers to any small side dish, not just seafood. Bokkeum refers to a cooking method.
posted by peachfuzz at 10:05 PM on September 15, 2010
Best answer: I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but apparently it appears in both. It's not a real "dish" but an atrocious "health food" the protagonist prepares for himself. On this page (Japanese) the reviewer quotes the director Yoichi Sai as saying that at Pusan International Film Festival, someone asked him (Sai) the same question and he said it's not a Korean or Japanese food but a "Shunpei-food" and that he doesn't recommend eating it because it won't make you healthy. Apparently, in the script it just says "rotted pork."
posted by misozaki at 10:58 PM on September 15, 2010
posted by misozaki at 10:58 PM on September 15, 2010
Response by poster: 「あの腐肉は日本食なのか、韓国食なのかと聞かれたんですよ。で僕の答えは、いやどちらでもない、あれは俊平食だと。食べても元気にならないから食べるのはやめなさい・・・」
...and we have the answer to my question. Honestly I'm a bit disappointed, but nevertheless thank you misozaki!
I guess I just thought that, because they showed him preparing it in a very particular way, it may have been a real dish...
posted by dubitable at 11:21 PM on September 15, 2010
...and we have the answer to my question. Honestly I'm a bit disappointed, but nevertheless thank you misozaki!
I guess I just thought that, because they showed him preparing it in a very particular way, it may have been a real dish...
posted by dubitable at 11:21 PM on September 15, 2010
ㅋㅋㅋ...Koreans are quite proud of their food (as you've seen here), and for good reason (it's almost universally delicious and often misunderstood in the West).
posted by smorange at 11:35 PM on September 15, 2010
posted by smorange at 11:35 PM on September 15, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
I haven't seen the movie (I'm curious now) but the wiki page says Kitano's character is from Cheju Island in the south of, erm, South Korea. It's possible they have some crazy-and-wild dishes that a former young big city Seoul boy like me had never heard of. But I still find it hard to believe rotten meat would be one of them though.
posted by shortfuse at 6:57 PM on September 15, 2010