Foods I didn't try in Korea

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Everyone who goes through Incheon Airport probably has shot these signs already, but...

turkey_goatmilk_icecream.jpg
I asked the vendor "Does this ice cream taste good?". When he said "Yes, try some!", I politely declined. If the ice cream wasn't being sold at airport prices, I might have taken him up on it.

korean_hangover_cure.jpg
Cool. Maybe I'll try it next time.

7 Comments

Mmmm...Yummy

Turkey ice cream with Goat's milk. You should have tried it. I wanna know which part of the turkey actually synchronizes with sweetened milk - goat's milk no less. If they used any of the 'horumon' parts - it would make it a bit crunchy. On the other hand the liver's consistency is somewhat close - though imagining the flavor makes me want to bark.

Dude, you transfer flights at Incheon sometimes, right? That means that you will have the opportunity to let me know just how good the ice cream really is...

I looked over the Korean and have tentatively concluded that the English should read "TURKISH ice cream with goat's milk." While goat's milk ice cream might not be appealing to some, it's probably better than tasting the flesh of a cooked ornithoid in your cone.

The Korean word for "turkey" (the bird) is a Sino-Korean string: ch'il-myeon-jo. This translates as "Seven-faced Bird." I have no idea how they got that from staring at a turkey, a bird completely lacking in the drama and mystery implied by a label like "seven-faced." "Seven-faced Bird" sounds more like a kung fu technique, or a vulgar hand gesture that's popular in Hong Kong and L.A.

Given how stinky real turkeys are, they should've called it "Ch'il-BYEON-jo," or "Seven Excrements Bird." Seven times the stink of a normal fowl.


Kevin

Hey Kevin, thanks for the translation. Sounds like a good name for a Gorgon-esque mythological beast...

What's the word for "turkey" in Japanese?


Kevin

Hey Kevin,

Now that you mention it, I think it's the same in Japanese as it is in Korean. It even sounds alike:
shichimencho (broken down into kanji it's shichi=7 men=face cho=bird). I wonder if this is due to someone making a flawed observation (like the explanation of people seeing an antelope-type animal from the profile, and mistaking it for a unicorn) or the usual mashing together of seemingly random kanji characters to make a new hybrid compound.

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