BlackBook Magazine meets "Live Tentacles". On Location Photoshoot at The Prince.

blackbookshoot-400BlackBook's Heather Culp blasting! Eddie Lin wincing. (Photo: Charchi)

I try to get out, but they keep pulling me back in. This was my third trip to The Prince Restaurant in Koreatown, Los Angeles. This was also my third time confronting The Prince’s now infamous “live tentacles”. Like I said, I try to get out, but they, the tentacles, keep pulling me back in. On this occasion the reason for my reunion with the tentacles was a photoshoot for BlackBook Magazine, the arts & entertainment, fashion & lifestyle mag. I was interviewed over the phone by BlackBook writer Stephen Weiss a week or so prior to the shoot. It was a thorough interview and longer than I had anticipated. The photo editor referred to my interview as a “feature” which stunned me. The photo editor also informed me that a freelance photographer would be making arrangements with me for a photoshoot for the “feature” on my “disgusting eating habits” (actual quote from the photo editor on my voicemail). I love New Yorkers.

So this finds me back for visit number three (and perhaps strike number three) at The Prince with the “live tentacles”. The shoot seemed cursed from the beginning. It was a clumsy dance between the restaurant’s management and us to try and get permission to shoot at the location because we could not speak the other’s language. Us: English and Chinese. Them: Korean and very little English. (And the words I can say in Korean would have gotten me a knuckle sandwich rather than some yummy banchan.) Thankfully, there was enough of an understanding and ultimately an agreement. We even got free Cokes. Very nice people at The Prince. So after Heather Culp, the photographer, and her able, multi-tasking assistant Charchi finished setting up the lights and loading the cameras, it was time to bring out the star of the shoot. Ahem, NOT me. The star was, of course, the bodiless tentacles. Strange thing in Hollywood though, stars have a bad but common habit of not showing up. And our tentacles were a no show. Apparently, this slithery, cephalopod delight was seasonal. But as they say in the biz: The show must go on. And since I was the only one who knew Koreatown, I went off to set up my casting couch to find something resembling octopus tentacles. Sure enough I got some at a Korean supermarket. However, it wasn’t merely tentacles; it was the entire octopus. Really it was a celo-pack of many, many baby octopi, approximately twenty to twenty-five of them. How would you, you, you, you, you, etc. like to be stars? Anyway, the point is the pile of slime you’ll see in the photo of the BlackBook Magazine article is not what you get when you order the actual thing. But, hey, sometimes you have to improvise to get the shot. Plus the hyper thrashing of the “live tentacles” would be lost in a still photo anyway, so it didn’t matter much in the end.

I really appreciate the attention these tentacles have brought me and all, but I’d like to take a break from these guys for a while. Maybe the next time I see them it’ll be for a ten year reunion. I’m fairly certain the tentacles feel the same way and then some.

Check out my feature in the November issue of BlackBook on sale in October and available at newsstands and bookstores everywhere. Thanks!

Comments

elmomonster said…
Sheesh! I feel for ya man! Makes you wish you wrote about ice cream sundaes instead, don't it?

So what's next in the Deep End that will bring you more notoriety and have people asking you to eat it for a photo-op over and over?!

Live cobra heart? Nah, been done.
Eddie Lin said…
To paraphrase the Beatles: I am the Octopus. Goo goo g’joob.
Anonymous said…
Did you actually swallow that stuff?? Eddie, why don't you do a "What should Eddie eat" poll! I'd like to see what you get "volunteered" for.
Eddie Lin said…
kirk, i've thought about that but i think some of my readers are out to kill me, e.g. live tentacles was a rec by a reader...and now i eat, drink, sleep and *bleep* live tentacles!!! they're going to get me. i know it!!

meg, i wish i had a double for that shoot. i had those damn baby octopi in my mouth for at least an hour. ptooooey!
Anonymous said…
Who paid for the octopus?
Anonymous said…
Great Blog. Many of my friends are interested in trying the live tentacles now. Just don't eat any alligator please.

Support your local gator. http://savereggie.blogspot.com
Juliet said…
I just discovered your blog the other day, and my husband and I have had some good laughs over it. You write about a lot of foods that I love. (Chicken feet, 1,000-year-old-egg, stinky tofu, etc.)But I draw the line at tentacles. heh
if you haven't already (my apologies. I haven't fully browsed the site yet)you should write a review for pork blood soup. I love that stuff! (My Chinese husband says I am the weirdest white woman he knows.)
BTW, we share a last name. Just wanted to point that out. Bye!
Eddie Lin said…
Dalian,

Your wish is my command. Keep coming back because pig's blood is on the menu and coming soon! Thanks for the nice comments.
Juliet said…
Coolies! I look forward to it. Maybe you will have better luck getting people to try it than I have.
By the way, I linked you to my blog. I'm sure you don't mind a few extra readers. ;-)