I have never tried it, but have seen people eat it all the time. What does it taste like? If you have never seen it check out the video:

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I've seen it many times, but I have never tried it. Usually I don't see it with vegetables like in the video. Usually, it's just on it's own with a bit of sesame oil. Koreans eat it like it's candy.
You'd have to pay me a lot of money to try it - but that's just me.

Nope. Never have and never will. Over the many years I've been in Korea, I've noticed something when it comes to food in this culture. It doesn't seem to be about the "incredible good taste", but more for its value or exotic-ness (Is that even a word? ).

I know some may disagree or Koreans won't admit it, but whenever I see Korean men do something like eat a live octopus, it's not about the great taste but a show of their masculinity. I also notice often, especially when it comes to spicy food, they give me that, "Heh! You think you can handle this?" sort of look. Anyone else feel that sometimes?

I'm not implying anything's wrong about it, though. There's a little bit of that in every culture.

I've eaten live squid a few times. Not necessarily by choice, but that was what the Korean host ordered, so I felt obligated to eat it, and to do so with a smile on my face.

They sliced up the octopus just prior to eating it, but it was still squirming all around when we ate it. The suction cups on the legs still worked just fine and they would latch on to the chop sticks. I literally had to close my teeth over the chop stick and scrape the damn things off inside my mouth - kind of like the way to get the last little bit of ice cream off of an ice cream stick.

It didn't taste bad, and I eat cooked squid all the time, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

What I didn't like was the soup that came out with the meal. It also had several parts of the squid in it, to include the heads, which were completely intact.

I didn't know this at first, but the heads are considered the best part of the squid and are reserved for the guest of honor in such situations. And unfortunately - that was me.

I tried to avoid them, but eventually, one of the hosts fished one out of the main soup bowl and plopped it down on my plate. So now, not only do I have to eat it, but I've got all the eyes on me - with everything waiting with great anticipation for me to eat it and proclaim how great it tasted.

I put it in my mouth whole, and tried to bite down on it. It was very rubbery and thick, and it took a lot of concentration to get it positioned exactly between the back teeth in a way so that I could bite down on it really hard, while at the same time stopping itfrom sliding off into the middle of my mouth - which happened on the first few attempts.

I finally managed to get a good bite on it and broke through to the inside of it. And as soon as I bit through - my mouth got flooded with octopus brains - a thick, black, inky substance.

But I survived that - once again - with a smile on my face. I thought I was done. And yes, I of course, expressed my delight in how great it tasted.

Apparently, I fooled them so well, that they really believed me. Because no sooner had I finished saying that, and another one appeared on my plate. Of course, I inisisted that it wasn't right for me to be hogging all the delicacies - but that just fell on deaf ears.

Another one of those great stories I'll someday be able to tell the grandkids.

That was a great story, willy! Thanks for sharing that with us.

I know what you mean with the feeling of obligation, especially with drinking; accepting a shot of soju from a "sunbeh" or "hyeong".

I always have the best excuses when it comes to those situations:

When it comes to foods, I say "Oh, I'm so sorry, but I'm allergic to _______. My throat starts to swell up and I won't be able to breathe!"

When it comes to alcohol, I tell them I was at the hospital recently with stomach problems and my doctor said not to drink.

When I worked for the Military Advisory Group at ROKAF HQ, we had to attend social gatherings as a part of the job. So I did eat and drink all of those things, but not always willingly.
It boils down to this: (My wife said it today, as I was thinking it, and she is authorized to say it, because she was once a Korean.)
She said,"Koreans will eat shoe leather if you dip it in Ko chu jang!"
She could not be more correct. That darn ko chu jang is their lifeblood! Me? I prefer catsup!

LOL!
That's a good one, Mr. Joe! I like that! And it is so true! Go Chu Jang does taste good with everything!

When i was down at Kimhae, we had lunch with the lead guy who was in charge of the helicopter at KAL. They had a "soup" that was mailny cow blood that was mixed with some meat and mixed togheter and set outside for "several days" and when brought to the table was heated and mixed with rice.

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They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey

Oh! I think that is Haejanggook! And, yes, it is ox blood. This is one weird food I actually enjoy very much! The reason I had no problem with trying this is...well, I like rare, bloody steaks because they're good. How bad could it be?

I haven't had Haejanggook in a long time...I think I'll have it this weekend.

Same bunch that took me out for the live octopus also took me out for haejanggook (해장국) one time.

I'd never heard of it. But I figured... it starts off with "hae" (해) which is probably the "hae" for ocean (海). Not sure what "jang" (장) stands for... and ends with "gook" (국) so it must be a soup of some sort. So... I concluded "Hey ~ some sort of seafood soup. That sounds great!"

Damned if I wasn't just a little surprised after it showed up at our table.

It comes in many varities and styles. Where I had it - they served it as a fairly thick, brownish colored soup with rectangular blocks of what looked like pieces of caramel (can't think of a better item to use to describe it).

Come to find out - those blocks were chunks of coagulated cow blood.

Once again - I had to eat it, say "Mmm mmm delicious!" and smile.