I think there is a common stereotype that a lot of Asian cultures have dog as an Asian cuisine. Well, the fact is, there are some select groups and places in China, Vietnam and in Korea that do eat dog. If you ask me, I don’t have a problem with that - meat should be meat except for eating your fellow human being. Though I can see how people in general would find it difficult to ear a domesticated pet. In today’s Wall Street Journal, the newspaper reports that “Seoul Hounds Meat Vendors For Cleaner Chow:”
“…A century ago, when South Korea was a poor, closed and largely agrarian society, dogs were more commonly eaten than other animals. Big animals like ox were valued for their ability to carry loads and people could be penalized for eating them. Dog, which is typically lighter and sweeter-tasting than beef, is also eaten in China and Vietnam. No official estimates exist on the size of South Korea’s dog-meat industry. A 2006 survey by KBS-TV, one of the three main national networks, found that one in three respondents had eaten dog meat. It also found that consumption patterns were no different between people who had dogs as pets and those who didn’t. Only 9% of respondents thought it should be banned.”
Apparently, the Korean government started to ban dog-meat restaurants in the mid-1980s because of worries about the image they would send during the 1988 Olympics the city hosted. Although dog mean is still officially banned within the city of Seoul (and legal outside of the city), you can still find dog being served and can be easily found in the city, though not openly advertised.
The article goes on to describe how restaurant owners would like the dog meat industry to become regulated, giving a legitimacy to the cuisine and increasing the cuisine’s image, popularity and consumption. Personally, I wouldn’t mind at least trying dog at least once (I wonder if it tastes like chicken? 
). Dog food has a whole new meaning to me now! Has anybody out there ever tried dog?
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Rob wrote:
I tried it at a Korean BBQ in Shanghai a few months ago and it actually is pretty sweet. Keep in mind that I wasn’t stuffing my face with it but just two bites.
Posted on 12-May-08 at 6:42 am | Permalink
Moye wrote:
I haven’t tried dog and I don’t think I really would ever want to, but it’s interesting to hear that it’s sweet.
Sometimes I wish others would get over this whole “asians eat dog ewww gross” thing. It’s not groundbreaking information and always creates the same backlash and stereotypes.
Why don’t we ever eat cat, though?
Posted on 12-May-08 at 8:12 am | Permalink
Jen wrote:
i agree with moye, much of this fascination with dog meat has a “look what odd things foreigners eat” perspective to it…
Posted on 12-May-08 at 10:35 am | Permalink
Efren wrote:
I had dog once when I was 9 in the Philippines. My mom had taken my sister and me to Baguio to see her brother, and when we came back, the dog was gone and somehow her family had this “special stew” that they wanted us to eat…
Thankfully, I don’t remember how it tasted, though I do agree that meat is meat–as long as you know how the meat’s processed, it’s fair game. Besides, carnivores and omnivores should know meat IS processed, right?
Posted on 12-May-08 at 12:27 pm | Permalink
Rob wrote:
A race’s diet has always been used to determine how inferior they are.
For example, in the 1800s, whites in America would deem Asians, specifically Chinese, to be inferior because they would eat shellfish such as lobsters, shrimp, crabs, clams, etc. The theory comes from that since these organisms are bottom feeders, the people that eat them are naturally dirty.
Posted on 12-May-08 at 2:23 pm | Permalink
Jin::GoofyAsians.com wrote:
Interesting Rob…and kind of ironic since lobster is considered an expensive food item now!
Posted on 12-May-08 at 7:32 pm | Permalink
Oliver wrote:
I had dog a number of times when I worked in Korea. There were dog restaurants on the other side of the valley of Gwacheon, across from Government Complex II. Dog was then, and perhaps still is, a macho guy thing. Most Koreans were shocked to hear that I had had dog even just once. Some Koreans would not be happy with our discussing it at all, and it was clearly only a minority of men that would partake of it with any regularity. The “dog eating culture” supposedly came from Manchuria, i.e., the Gogoryeo Kingdom.
I would say dog is somewhere between beef and the dark parts of the turkey. It’s a little fatty and gamey.
A female friend who visited me while I was in Korea insisted on trying dog (and live octopus and other such things), so I took her to a dog restaurant in Gwacheon. I’m usre that this was the only time “westerners” ever showed up to the place without Korean hosts. The folks at the restaurant were impressed. At the time, I spoke almost zero Korean, so I pointed to the pet dog in the court yard and said “Shiksa.” The waitresses completely undersood, and they gave us extra service.
I always thought Shiksa would be a good name for a dog in the U.S. “Here, Shiksa, Shiksa, Shiksa! Come here! Good doggie!!!”
The last time I had dog was the night of my last day at the office. The folks at my office knew that I had had dog a number of times before, and they took me to a really good dog resaurant in Gwacheon. And I’ll tell you, that was the BEST dog I ever had….
Posted on 13-May-08 at 12:54 am | Permalink
kay wrote:
my bf would kill me for eating dog…
i tease him about guinea pigs already.. how they were bred for meat. and i want to go to peru to taste them lol. he said he would break up for me if i ever cooked him guinea pig or ate some. he would probalby kill me for eating dog lol.
i do like the name shiksa for a dog… bf wants a pet pig… i came up with the name “dinner” for the pet pig.
Posted on 13-May-08 at 10:13 am | Permalink
kay wrote:
what does shiksa mean? dog? a phonetic spelling of dog in korean?
Posted on 13-May-08 at 10:19 am | Permalink
Chloe wrote:
shiksa means meal.
In Korea, there are three days during summer that you are supposed to eat dogs. We believe that we need to get some high-calorie and high-protein meal to endure the hot and steamy summer weather. Some people like me eat chicken soup with ginseng instead of dog.
The reason Korean people, even the dog lovers, rarely opposed to dog eating tradition is that we accept it as our culture just as French eats snails.
Anyway, I do agree it should be regulated. Dog meal lovers think that the best meat comes from a beat-to-death dog. I don’t think the restaurants kill the dogs in this unhumane way anymore. But we want to make sure this is the case through a regulation.
Posted on 13-May-08 at 6:03 pm | Permalink
Oliver wrote:
I know some Native American folks who named their dog ‘Din Din.’ Evidently, various Native Americans also ate dog back in the day. I think that’s where I got the idea for using ‘Shiksa’ as a name for a dog. Maybe Kay can use ‘Din Din’ for her boyfriend’s pig.
As an aside, the Koreans say that hospitals used to give dog to patients after surgery. Supposedly, the cell structure of dog is similar to that of humans and, therefore, is more easily assimilable into the human body. I tend to be skeptical about this, but lots of folks in Korea insisted that this was the case.
I don’t know when the Koreans discontinued the practice of giving to dog to recovering patients.
Posted on 13-May-08 at 9:17 pm | Permalink