I don’t remember where we bought the box of chocolates for Ryan’s little half-sister that had her favorite K-pop band “Big Bang” emblazoned on the cover, but I’m pretty sure that we didn’t buy it from any store inside the Gwangjang Market. Indeed, Gwangjang Market was not where one went searching for items depicting Korean boy bands because Gwangjang Market was where one went when they have a hankering for blood sausage, live octopus, raw shrimp, sea penis, or steamed silkworm pupae.
None of the items I just mentioned looked appetizing to either of us, therefore we both passed up the opportunity to eat any of the items that were being touted as food. I admit that I am not the most open-minded person when it comes to exotic international cuisine, but seeing someone stir a vat of rather sizable bugs and peddling it as a snack food did manage to make me forget that I was hungry.
When we watched a little old lady giddily shuffle up to the silkworm vendor and then scuttle away with a warm bag of steaming bugs, it was with pure fascination that we watched her excitedly dig into the bag and devour the creatures as if they were candy. It was then that we learned that foreign food markets were definitely not our thing.
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Krista Marson 