This choice meant I would have to reconsider my views about eating meat. Four years ago I witnessed a Spanish ritual of torture and murder, commonly known as a bull fight, and since then the sight of a big bloody steak has made my stomach turn. The trauma made it difficult to eat anything with a face for a number of months. Eventually I leveled out and decided that I would not eat red meat and stuck with mostly chicken and fish.
Living in California my choice was easy to adhere to however moving to a foreign country I knew I would not have the luxuries of widely accepted dietary restrictions such as vegetarian, vegan and pescatarian. Also, I knew that meat, specifically barbecue, was an important part of Korean culture. With these two considerations I made the decision to eat meat and at least taste whatever else I was served for the next year.
Over the past three months I have eaten: steak, barbecued pork, squid, octopus, cheeseburgers, cuttlefish, clams fresh from the mud field, a lot of kimchi, mushrooms, chicken feet, duck, ginseng root, rice cakes, tofu prepared twenty different ways, many side dishes with names I do not know, hot dogs, spam, and many varieties of seaweed.
The first few times I indulged in barbecue I woke up in the middle of the night with my stomach in knots and groaning in pain. My body had forgotten how to digest mass quantities of meat and I was paying the price. Today, I bought a mystery vegetable at market and literally said out loud 'I'm not sure what this is, but I'm going to eat it'. I have of course found a few favorite dishes and some that I do not care for but I will continue to eat what I am served with out question.
One exception, I cannot knowingly eat dog.
