Dog Meat Soup

For any Western dog lover, rest-assured that the meat used in Bosintang (Korean dog meat soup) is a specific breed specially raised for the purposes of human consumption.  Bosintang is available throughout Korea, even in the smaller cities.  The taste is okay, a little chewy, reminiscent of duck meat, and the broth is said to be spicy, but for this lover of spice, did not seem to be too extreme.  If you have no qualms about eating one of our furry friends, try this at least once.  It is traditional Korean food said to give men especially, strength and stamina.  

          The following is an excerpt about Bosintang from an article published by an  
             American envoy to Korea, in 1891:

Soup made of dog's flesh is one of the favorite tonics, blood purifiers,
and cures for sore throat, etc. It is, in short, the panacea of
Korean doctors, and every one considers it a duty to take a bowl of
it at least once a year to insure good health. In December, 1884,
when Prince Min Yung-ik was cut down by the revolutionists and
dreadfully wounded, the native doctors tried to cure his wounds by
giving him dog soup. Another of the popular notions of this people
which I beg to call to the attention of all mothers blessed with small
children is that of making them eat walnuts when suffering from indigestion caused from swallowing copper cash. Walnuts are said to
dissolve the copper, or rather to cause it to crumble into small pieces,
and I have seen a Korean demonstrate the accuracy of this by crushing a cash in his mouth with walnuts; but good teeth and bad copper are most likely sufficient to explain the mystery.

                                      -W. Woodville Rockhill, "Notes on Some of the Laws, Customs, and
                                        Superstitions of Korea," published in American Anthropologist.