SongChamBong Joseon Folk Village in Geurong, Jeollabukdo has the most amazing tasting Baeksu (Chicken Soup) and Daktoritang (Spicy Chicken Soup). The reason they taste so amazing is because they are raised on nutritious feed and are cooked the day they are killed.
It was important for Team Happy Bear to only eat ethically raised meat and we were very happy with the living conditions for the chickens.
I had the opportunity to take responsibility for all the chickens I have eaten by killing one of the chickens we would eat for our lunch.
I could finally put aside the guilty feeling of having other people kill things for me and I could face the reality of killing another creature.
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| Before |
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| After: Spicy Chicken Soup, a really nourishing meal. |
Eating is a happy occasion that has inspired many to give thanks. Eating meat was a special occasion as hunters or farmers would kill an animal in order for their families to get the needed nutrition which was lacking in their families everyday diet. In pre-Moderrn Korea, the Mother-In-Law would slaughter and cook a chicken for her Son-In-Law when he would visit. Eating a delicious chicken is enough itself to put happiness into an occasion.
However, along the way to becoming a delicious meal whether from a high quality chicken from SongChamBong or from the factory farm, something died so we can live.
There is nothing to feel bad about when taking the life of another creature so you that you may live. We live in a cycle of life in which plants and animals feed each other.
However, that animal or plant's death should be recognized and gratitude felt.
The only way I could really feel grateful was to kill the chicken myself.
I chased a chicken and caught it. Then the farmer instructed me how to kill and I followed through. I held its feet with one foot and wings another foot and using my both hands twisted the animals neck until it broke( something which was less difficult than I thought it would be).
Though I felt tense before taking its life, afterwards I felt a sense of relief for three reasons. I felt relieved that this creatures pain was over and that what I had done, had to be done. Finally, I was relieved of the need to prove something to myself.
And I felt grateful.
I prepared the chicken for cooking. I put the animal in steaming water to loosen its feathers. Then I took it out. Mike and Anina came to me and helped me pluck it.
"How do you feel," Mike asked me.
"I feel good," I said.
"I feel good to," he said.
The farmer cut open the bird and told me what to do next and I did it.
After gutting the chicken, we went for a walk. The chicken was taken to the restaurant to be cooked into Daktoritang(Spicy Chicken Soup).
We arrived at the restaurant shortly afterwards and waited for our food to arrive. The Baeksu arrived 10 minutes later. Then sometime later my freshly killed chicken arrived transformed into Daktoritang.
I tasted it.
The taste was noticeably different from the cheap chicken my mother would buy from my local supermarket as a kid. The difference was night and day. The supermarket chicken had no flavor so my mother would smother the chicken in breadcrumbs and fry it in oil. But this SongChamBong chicken tasted amazing. It tasted as if I had never tasted chicken before. Its intensity of flavor and texture put huge smiles on my face throughout the meal with each taste.
There was another reason I was smiling. I had paid for this chicken.
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| So delicious, I pasted this picture twice. |
-Greg
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011-734-4506
If you liked this article, then maybe you would like to watch:
Or read about Baeksu which is another Chicken soup from the same restaurant:
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