SEOUL – Sannakji, octopus seasoned with salt and sesame oil and served while still squirming, is among South Korea’s most notorious delicacies.

The dish shot to global infamy, thanks to an iconic scene from 2004 South Korean film Oldboy, where actor Choi Min-sik’s character devours a whole wriggling octopus alive at a sushi bar.

Numerous videos on YouTube show fearless foreign tourists trying sannakji in South Korea’s fish markets, highlighting the cuisine’s enduring popularity. But eating “live octopus”, as sannakji can be translated to, comes with serious risks.

On Monday, an 82-year-old man choked to death while eating the dish in the southern city of Gwangju, according to Gwangju Gwangsan Fire Station.

First responders arrived at the scene after an emergency call, but they were unable to resuscitate the man.

He was later pronounced dead in hospital.

The incident is not without precedent in the country.

Between 2007 and 2012, three people died of asphyxiation from eating live octopus, according to data from Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters. In 2013, two more deaths were recorded, and another incident, involving a man in his 70s, took place in 2019, according to local news reports.

Sannakji is ranked among the world’s most dangerous food, along with bullfrogs and poisonous pufferfish, by several Western news outlets due to the occasional fatalities.

For those who dare to try the dish, it is best to slice the octopus tentacles into smaller pieces, and control alcohol intake while eating it as intoxication can increase the risk of choking. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK