Eating Pig’s Feet in Korea – JOKBAL – 족발 처음 먹는 미국인

I’d always wanted to try pig’s feet, but never wanted to pay for it. For a relatively expensive price (around $30) it seemed just out of my curiosity’s reach. In addition, many Koreans dislike the smell of pig’s feet, as well as the texture. So finding someone to even go together with was difficult. Then this time in Korea I found out my friend Claire (who I’ve filmed an interview with before) happens to really like pig’s feet. This was my chance. I brought along my camera and we journeyed together to try it out (for my first time).

Pig’s feet do smell bad, but only from the outside of the restaurant where the steam travels blocks away. From the inside, the smell isn’t very strong. It smells like Chinese medicinal herbs, which isn’t an off-putting smell, but is strong. However the pork itself has no such odd flavor. The smell comes from the herbs that are used when preparing the pork to help remove the pork’s own strong smells, and it helps a lot.

Once you’ve tried a bite, the pork instead tasted almost like regular chicken, or just soft and juicy pork. But there’s also a unique texture to some of the pieces. Part of what comes out will also be “collagen” which is kind of a hard jelly. Some people dislike that texture. I didn’t mind it.

You can also order different kinds of pig’s feet. For this video I tried regular and spicy, and ended up liking both equally as much. And you can choose between the front legs (highly recommended for their flavor) or the black legs.

So if you get a chance an excuse to eat pig’s feet, give it a try. In fact, just give everything in Korea a try. That’s the whole purpose of this video series, I think. Even things that sound like they’d taste disgusting can be delicious.