Former 'Next Top Model' Elyse Sewell Eats Dog Stew in Seoul
Elyse Sewell, the third-place winner from the first season of America's Next Top Model, is now modeling in Seoul, South Korea, where she keeps an entertaining, well-written blog that often has entries on her food adventures. Her readers recently dared her to try bosintang. That would be dog soup. She met them head on:
I was expecting the dog meat to be indistinguishable from beef or pork. It wasn't: this stuff was decidedly doggy, like, it had a sort of dogfur aroma and flavor to it. The soup also had a lot of green onions and those unidentifiable stringy greens that are also pictured in a bowl alongside. That big bowl of black pepper contained twice the quantity before the proprietor came up, dumped a huge mound of it into the bowl and stirred it up for me. This made the flavor of the meat seem much more penetrative; I felt like I was sweating the dog scent out of my pores.
Bosintang is said to have a heightening effect on the libido. Sewell touches on the effect but doesn't go into great detail. Perhaps in a blog post to come. [via Delish Dish]
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20 Comments:
This goes beyond the realm of disgusting all the way to incomprehensibly barbaric! Do you honestly believe that readers of this blog want to see ANYTHING that has to do with eating DOG!!!!!!!!!!!! What's next, cat fritters? You total morons-get a GRIP!!!!!!
passy at 3:09PM on 04/22/08
An animal rights activist once lectured my family about our uncivilized, barbaric ways just based on the fact that we're Asian - nevermind the fact that we've never even eaten dog, nor wish to. So before the ewww comments begin, I'm going to jump into defense position and add a few facts:
1. Koreans who eat dog are about as common as Americans who eat ostrich. It's available and it's certainly been heard of, but most people just haven't done it.
2. They don't eat just any dog, so nix any associations between bosintang and your cute little shih tzu being boiled. Just as we prefer to eat chicken over parakeets, only a specific breed of dog is used.
3. Dogeating is in no way limited to Asia.
In other words, get off my case for being Asian, PETA.
strozzapreti at 3:14PM on 04/22/08
Thanks for the clarification, strozzapreti. I figured this one was going to get some "ewww" comments and angry ones. Some people eat dog. Some people eat guinea pig. Some eat chickens, pigs, and cows. I thought this was an interesting link.
Adam Kuban at 3:16PM on 04/22/08
Cat fritters.....hmmmm. I can't help but wonder however if this bimbo is a blonde.
RichardCrystal at 3:58PM on 04/22/08
While I may not want to eat dog I don't think I am in a position to judge other people's eating habits. In this country we have domesticated different types of animals for different jobs, some food, some labor. It seems a lot of people don't have a problem killing and eating unattractive animals but when it comes to cute animals like dolphins or dogs, killing and eating them is a no no. They are all lives being snuffed out and we meat eaters need to be ok with that somehow no matter what the being looks like that we are going to kill, have killed, or will have someone else kill, in order to eat them. Other people might think killing cows to take them apart and eat and use their flesh, bones, skin, organs and brains is barbaric, it sure sounds barbaric.
I could sure use a burger.
the_o at 4:03PM on 04/22/08
Passy,
Oh, PLEASE.
Take your comment and replace "dog" with "cow" and you'll see how juvenile you sound. While I can appreciate as intellectually honest a vegetarian perspective, I can't begin to understand anyone who honestly believes that there's anything intrinsically different between eating a dog and a pig.
It's not like they're discussing eating babies. Apparently, you've most of the world to the category of "utter morons," i.e., those who eat things you find yucky. I could stomach a comment from you saying, "Wow. I don't think I could do that -- I have strong associations with dogs as pets." But this blog is called "Serious Eats," not "Conventional, Anglocentric Eats."
I'm sure there's a place on the internet for people who share your opinion, I just don't think it's here. Count me as one of the readers of this blog who find this discussion interesting. Hell, I'd welcome some recipes for cat if it tastes good, isn't unhealthy and is locally available.
For what it's worth, I've had Korean Dog Soup. It didn't give me a woody, but it tasted fine...
johnmccollum at 4:05PM on 04/22/08
Different strokes for different folks.
Raphael at 4:15PM on 04/22/08
Richard, Elyse is not a bimbo -- she's quite smart and funny, judging by her blog, and gave up a med-school track to do the Top Model stuff.
Adam Kuban at 4:27PM on 04/22/08
johnmccollum, sorry, but not too many people domesticate cows or pigs. I am a vegetarian, not usually a proselytizing one, but this is too much. I didn't realize that you were the one to set the standards for this blog, sorry!
passy at 5:42PM on 04/22/08
Maybe they'll auction her dog-tinged sweat on eBay?
srhcb at 5:55PM on 04/22/08
Passy,
Of course I'm not the one to set the standards for this blog, but are you?
YOU are the one who called those who want to eat dog or read about foods you might find disgusting "total morons." Again, if you'd expressed your personal disgust, I wouldn't have come out of my relative anonymity to challenge you.
You didn't. You called the rest of us morons, exposing yourself as an intolerant, ethnocentric, food-bigot.
I'm more than willing to tone down the rhetoric -- I don't have any bone to pick with you personally. I am a world traveler and avid foodie, and my family is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural. It's bad enough when other kids tell my kids that their ethnic cuisine is disgusting or immoral -- it's incomprehensible when someone makes those claims on a blog intended for adults who are interested in experiencing and learning about food.
Please think about the implications of your rant. Such sentiments expressed in such a way make this place a hostile environment for people who may not share your nationality, your culture or your "dog"ma.
In short, it's one thing to say you think someone's food is unappetizing to you; it's another thing to call people idiots for their cultural preferences.
johnmccollum at 6:44PM on 04/22/08
"sorry, but not too many people domesticate cows or pigs."
So... our culture's decision to domesticate certain animals renders all other cultures' decision to eat those animals barbaric? Riiiight.
And if I could find a culture that domesticates or reveres cattle (say, a Hindu culture), that would mean that our culture's consumption of beef is barbaric and moronic?
Again, I can understand the idea that eating ALL animals is immoral. I can't fathom the argument that makes your personal preferences morally binding on the rest of us.
Anyway.
johnmccollum at 6:51PM on 04/22/08
And you called me juvenile? Go back to your anonymity; you'll never change my position on this issue. Hiding behind your "culture" is a sorry excuse. Enough said.
passy at 7:18PM on 04/22/08
Anyone want to have an intelligent, adult conversation about food and culture and the relative rationality of our culinary taboos?
johnmccollum at 8:09PM on 04/22/08
I can't judge anyone for eating dog when I enjoy burgers, pork chops, lamb shanks, and chicken breasts on a regular basis.
Nonetheless, I could never eat dog or cat myself. It's a cultural prejudice, I understand that, but I just don't think I could bring myself to do it.
Penelope at 9:47PM on 04/22/08
I could give a rat's fried hind quarter what the reality tv people are eating. I never want to eat a dog because dogs are pets to me. In the immortal words of DL Hughley, "you don't walk food". I never had a pet pig, cow or chicken. Reason being I EAT THEM! Don't even think about what you might eat if the chickens, pigs and cows were gone. We are all 3 meals from anarchy. My neighbor across the street is a nice person but if I was starving he would be nice with some mashed and gravy.
As for the next supermodel, feed her a pound of couth. I don't care what she won she is an asshat! Tell her to sweat that out of her pores.
JerzeeTomato at 11:43PM on 04/22/08
wow, dog scent out of her pores... that's interesting.
question is, adam would you or the serious eats team try dog if it was available here in the city?
foodinmouth at 12:38AM on 04/23/08
I'm kinda iffy on this sensationalist kind of news...
On one hand, its fascinating and is a draw for readers, on the other, this kind of food is not so unusual or fascinating to people who are familiar with it as a part of their culture.
I have a hard time legitimizing any food as weird or gross anymore because someone, somewhere probably eats it and enjoys it and doesn't find it that odd.
Good for you, Sewell to try other foods, but these foods are only exoticized by a purely Western life experience and standard.
This kind of treatment does the culture no favors by keying in on the weird and eew factor.
@Johnmccollum
Bring the discourse on. I am ready! :)
fuuchan at 1:20AM on 04/23/08
I think Passy is the one that needs to GET A GRIP. No one wants to "change your position" on this issue. I think diversity is what makes the world go around. I see a lot of things that I would consider gross, things that I would never want to eat. But to call someone a moron for reporting about these things, seems excessive. To presume that there are food things that the readers of this blog do not want to know about is wrong. I read this blog and I found the information interesting. Oh ....and Adam I think the bimbo being refered to is not Elyse but the person who made the cat fritters comment
Sweetie at 7:26PM on 04/23/08
For the record, I have domesticated chickens, have worked on my cousin's dairy farm, and begged my parents for a pet pig throughout most of my childhood. I also have a dog. And have had a goldfish. Is eating fish barbaric? Am I horrible for eating a hamburger last night, just because I've named cows? Should I be deemed a moron and shot because I eat chicken almost every day, just because I have a pet chick?
Eating living things is how we survive, and most of us couldn't without separating life from food. I probably wouldn't eat dog, because it doesn't sound like a tasty meat, not because I'm unable to separate Fido's face from a bowl of stew. Nobody is trying to change your stance, just please keep your judgmental, inane, negative, ridiculous and hasty comments to a minimum, especially if you are unprepared to defend them in an informed, realistic and healthy debate. Nobody "makes the rules" for this blog, but I think everyone can agree to at least keep the hate out and the information in.
embolini9 at 1:00PM on 04/24/08