We ate today with one of the Fulbrights and his family. He is an expert on Korean Buddhism, so I asked a lot of questions and learned a lot.

We met at a special place that has a menu one (1) item long. But when it was this good, why diversify?

The specialty of this place is a special Korean octopus dish called jjukkumi. This consists of extremely spicy mini octopuses that you cook in the sauce on a metal wok type grill in the middle of the table. There were the usual (incredible) number of side dishes crowding the table as well and some seaweed soup, which is great. The octopus was very hot, and since I have been craving spicy food this certainly met the bill.

The way you eat it is to wrap the octopus in these large leaves that taste something close to mint and look like hydrangea leaves. They are supposed to draw out the spiciness a bit, but I didn't think it was necessary. Once the pan was emptied down the sauce and a few errant octopus, you make a fried rice with the sauce, some chopped kim sheets, and some sesame oil. This was almost better than the octopus itself.

This dish alone is a reason to visit Korea, truly.

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