The Marmot’s Hole

The Segye Ilbo (Korean), citing a piece in Russia’s Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK), reports that there are a growing number of restaurants in Moscow serving dog meat this summer. According the the Segye Ilbo, the MK said that in the past, restaurant owners would serve the delicacy only to close friends, but now, restaurants were putting the sweetest of meats on their menus. And not just Korean restaurants, mind you — about 10 ordinary Russian joints were serving it as well in Moscow alone.

The MK wondered, however, where all the dogs were coming from, as there’s no dog-rearing places in Moscow, and it pointed out that the stray dogs that used to run around outside the restaurants are now nowhere to be found.

The diligent MK reporter called up several of the places pretending to be a potential customer, telling them that a Korean business partner was coming to town and asking them if they’d bring dog meat to the hotel. Four of the restaurants said they would, while one Korean restaurant said they didn’t sell dog meat, but gave him the name of another place that did. Another restaurant said it would prepare dog meat only if the customer ordered five days in advance.

Some Korean restaurants in Moscow sell boshintang jeongol for three people for 1,050 rubles (about W37,000). Take if from me, that’s a steal.

The paper did mention, however, that on July 15 — the chobok in Korea — about 10 Russians held a demonstration in front of the Korean embassy in Moscow condemning Korea’s dog meat culture.