A food and travel blogger has filmed the moment he tried a dish of raw chicken for the primary time at a restaurant – shocking social media users from internationally.
British-Korean man Johnny Kyunghwo was on a food tour in Haenam, South Korea when he decided to try the weird dish.
In a video, Mr Kyunghwo explained that the tour, led by fellow content creator Austin Givens of the YouTube channel Eat What’s Given, went to a restaurant that specialised in locally raised free range chicken.
It served a dish called “chicken sashimi,” which he said was “essentially raw chicken”.
“I’d never tried completely raw chicken but you already know what, I’ll try anything once and let me inform you it was higher than I expected,” he said.
He added that it actually didn’t taste like chicken in any respect.
“The meat didn’t have much flavour so a lot of the taste got here from the sesame oil and seeds the raw chicken was coated in, but the feel was almost like raw fish. Not slimy in any respect. It was firm but still very easy to chew into,” he said in his review.
“I didn’t think I would love it that much but I ended up eating quite just a few bites of it including a Korean style raw chicken lettuce wrap. I give it an eight out of 10. Highly recommend.”
In a vlog on YouTube, Mr Kyunghwo said he was fully aware of the hazards of eating raw chicken but put his trust in the favored restaurant.
Nevertheless, Lydia Buchtmann from the Australian Food Safety Information Council told news.com.au it was not suitable for eating raw chicken anywhere.
“Chicken is a secure and convenient food whether it is cooked to 75 degrees Celsius [167 degrees Fahrenheit] within the thickest part,” she said. “Nevertheless it is a significant source of food poisoning if eaten raw or undercooked whether that’s here or overseas.
“We’ve noticed a trend in a small number (under 2 per cent) Australians saying they eat raw or minimally cooked meat and poultry which may be very dangerous.”
Mr Kyunghwo, who has 1.1 million followers on TikTok and 605,000 subscribers on YouTube, left viewers in shock.
“Please speak about how this didn’t kill you. Lots of us simply cannot comprehend raw chicken,” one person wrote.
“I can’t even comprehend the feel of raw chicken. That’s what would throw me off,” said one other.
“Did the salmonella force you to make this video,” a 3rd joked.
One person claimed they might have a panic attack even going near the plate, while one other said just watching the video made them feel sick.
Mr Kyunghwo had to guarantee people within the comments on his TikTok he was actually OK after eating the chicken sashimi.
“Guys, I ate this last week and I’m still alive,” he wrote.
Mr Kyunghwo has a British father and Korean mother, and while he was born in London, he grew up between the 2 countries.
He even worked as barista in Australia for a 12 months after ending highschool.
Chicken sashimi is eaten in Korea and Japan, where it’s referred to as torisashi. It may possibly also sometimes be present in Japanese restaurants outside Japan.
Brisbane-based chef Eugene Lee previously told SBS Food there was “an art to preparing raw chicken”, which meant chicken sashimi was done in a precise way.
“Many of the meat actually comes from probably the most inner a part of the chicken breast, nearest to the soft bone. That’s the safest part and is less prone to be infested with microbes,” he said.
He said in his experience overseas the chicken was slaughtered on farm, delivered to the restaurant inside hours and butchered by the chef on the restaurant using equipment just for that purpose.
“It shouldn’t be butchered [on the farm] because if the butcher starts preparing it then you definitely won’t know if the chicken feet has come into contact with the chicken breast,” he told the outlet. “We wish to get the chicken whole in order that the inner breast continues to be intact.”
Mr Kyunghwo said all of the chicken dishes they ate on the restaurant, each raw and cooked, were from the one chicken.
Food Standards Australia Recent Zealand recommends cooking all poultry to no less than 167 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle.
