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How About Some Steamed Silkworms? 번데기!!

How About Some Steamed Silkworms? 번데기!!

June 23, 20136481Views

By Jen Lee

Weird weather makes me feel weird. I am so not looking forward to the hotter months. I wish I stopped feeling weird.

Despite my love for Korean food, I have been known to be terribly picky. As much as I adore most of the amazing street food this country has to offer, there are some things I just won’t touch. One of them is the dreaded beondegi (번데기).

As the comic has stated, 번데기 is boiled (or steamed) silkworms that are often seasoned and eaten as a snack. You can get them in certain restaurants, and they even sell it in canned form. Since I was a child, the mere sight of these things has always bugged me out (hah, see what I did there?). My mom used to stock up on cans of this stuff in the states for snacking purposes. Bleh. For the longest time, I thought she was eating roaches. It was fun showing it off to people at school, though I’m sure this didn’t help with my attempt to fit in with the other kids much.

To this day, a whiff of this stuff (as well as certain other snack foods) is enough to make me gag while walking around town. I’ve come to learn that many other young Koreans feel the same way I do, though there is still a fairly large demand.

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Jen Lee is a Gyopo (교포) who likes to draw and also has an unhealthy obsession with green tea.
Her other artwork can be seen here at http://highway-6.com/art.html and at dearkoreacomic.com

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