Speaking on the podcast Ruthless last week, Jackson offered a memorable response to the question: “If you can plan your last meal on Earth, what would it be?”
“Well, I can tell you what it won’t be,” Jackson replied with a smile.
First of all, he said, balut is out of the question, which is a type of Filipino delicacy made from fertilized duck egg. But then things got really interesting.
“It won’t be dog penis when I’m in Korea next time,” Jackson continued as the podcast’s host cocked his head back and laughed. “I ate a whole plate of dog penis one time. I’m not doing that again.”
This revelation has inspired many questions over here at the Observer. An entire plate’s worth of dog penis? How many phalluses did that include? What type of canine? What did it taste like — do we even want to know?Out on his book tour, Ronny Jackson tells the story of the time said he ate a whole plate of dog penises. pic.twitter.com/bZqZG8lwWQ
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 8, 2022
The Observer reached out to the congressman’s office for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.
So, bereft of official answers, we looked to the internet for help. One Insider article posits that Jackson may have been referring to a dish called “gaebul,” a word that means “penis fish” in Korean.
Online magazine Atlas Obscura describes gaebul as a type of “marine spoon worm.” It’s a specialty dish that doubles as an aphrodisiac because of its phallic appearance.
“While some diners might slurp down a slice of gaebul for its reputed aphrodisiac effects, most eat this mudflat-dwelling worm because they like the taste,” Atlas Obscura explains. “Typically consumed raw, it’s chewy, salty and surprisingly sweet.”
It’s possible that Jackson may have just thought he’d eaten a whole plate of dog penises, but in fact was merely ingesting chewy-salty-sweet sea worms. A website called Travel Food Atlas further helps to elucidate where the congressman’s potential confusion could have stemmed from.
“A joke was once also thought that gaebul resembles a dog’s genitals, so the worm was named after those Korean words,” the site notes.
Well, now that we know what Jackson doesn’t want to swallow again, let’s dig into what he can stomach.
Shortly after dropping the bombshell about allegedly eating “dog penis,” the congressman revealed what he’d order for his last meal.
“If I had to plan it, it would probably be fried steak, fried okra, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and then followed up by blackberry cobbler with vanilla [Blue] Bell ice cream,” he said.
Fried steak, huh? Did he mean pan-fried? Deep-fried? Stir-fried? The list of questions grows.
