San-nakji

San-nakji
TypeHoe
Place of originKorea
Associated cuisineKorean cuisine
Main ingredientsLong arm octopus
Korean name
Hangul
산낙지
Revised Romanizationsan-nakji
McCune–Reischauersan-nakchi
IPA[san.nak̚.t͈ɕi]
Video of San-nakji

San-nakji (산낙지) is a variety of hoe (raw dish) made with long arm octopus (Octopus minor), a small octopus species called nakji in Korean and is sometimes translated into "baby octopus" due to its relatively small size compared to the giant octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini).[1] The octopus is most commonly killed before being cut into small pieces and served, with the nerve activity in the octopus' tentacles making the pieces move posthumously on the plate while served.[2][3][4] The octopus' highly complex nervous system, with two-thirds of its neurons localised in the nerve cords of its arms, lets the octopus show a variety of reflex actions that persist even when they have no input from the brain.[5][6] Less commonly, a live octopus is eaten whole.[7] The dish is sprinkled with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds.[8]

  1. ^ "san-nakji" 산낙지. Standard Korean Language Dictionary (in Korean). National Institute of Korean Language. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  2. ^ Rosen, Daniel Edward (4 May 2010). "Korean restaurant's live Octopus dish has animal rights activists squirming". New York Daily News. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  3. ^ Han, Jane (14 May 2010). "Clash of culture? Sannakji angers US animal activists". The Korea Times. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  4. ^ Compton, Natalie B. (17 June 2016). "Eating a Live Octopus Wasn't Nearly as Difficult As It Sounds". Munchies. VICE. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  5. ^ Hochner, B. (2012). "An Embodied View of Octopus Neurobiology". Current Biology. 22 (20): R887–R892. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.001. PMID 23098601.
  6. ^ Yekutieli, Y.; Sagiv-Zohar, R.; Aharonov, R.; Engel, Y.; Hochner, B.; Flash, T. (2005). "Dynamic model of the octopus arm. I. Biomechanics of the octopus reaching movement". J. Neurophysiol. 94 (2): 1443–58. doi:10.1152/jn.00684.2004. PMID 15829594.
  7. ^ "Eating Live Octopus". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  8. ^ Warwick, Joe (30 January 2015). "The truth about Noma's live prawn dish". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2017.