My close friend and colleague Fangyin asked me to take her, and her cousin who was visiting Korea, to the fish market to try some seafood. I barely know anything about seafood, but luckily I'd been to the fish market a few months before so I was able to at least take them there without getting lost.
The first and only time I went was with three exchange students: Mikael from Sweden, and Tomi and Laura from Finland. Mikael had wanted to try live octopus, so I figured we would kill two birds with one stone by having it at one of the largest and most famous fish markets in Seoul, Noryangjin Fish Market. It was certainly an unforgettable night. See, I thought he was referring to just-chopped-up octopus, which still squirms and writhes and clings to your tongue when you chew. Even when it's cut up, it's still called sannakji (live octopus), so I'd told him of course I'd tried it before. But nooo, he wanted real live octopus - as in not dead and not chopped up. And since he thought I'd tried
that before, he was expecting me to eat it, confirm that it wouldn't suffocate you, and then try it himself.
Well, try it I did. It was a horrific sight to see, the octopus ready in a bowl, trying to escape at all means by spreading its legs all over the table. I spent a good deal of time just preparing myself for the worst, and even chugged down soju straight from the bottle to rely partially on the influence of alcohol. I eventually managed to quickly wrap one little octopus around a wooden chopstick, stuff it into my mouth, chew for a good ten minutes, and finally get it over with. Mikael succeeded in downing one as well, and while we were super proud of each other, I vowed never to eat it again.
Ah, memories.
Anyway, this time, our mission was not to be adventurous and try anything out of the ordinary. We just wanted to try some good seafood. After work (yes, I had to work on a Saturday, ugh), I met them at the station to take the subway together, and we walked from Noryangjin Station.
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| Entrance to Noryangjin Fish Market |
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| Down the entrance |
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| There's a regular market as well, besides fish market. |
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| Left: fruit/vegetable market. Right: fish market |
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| Entrance within entrance |
This fish market is HUGE. There are stalls and stalls and stalls of every single seafood you've ever seen or heard of. I took a few pictures but they don't even come close to capturing the scope and variety of this place.
This fish market works on an interesting system. I say interesting because I've never been to any other fish market and don't know whether this is normal. So you purchase your seafood and bring everything to a restaurant, where they cook and prepare it for you. We went to the same restaurant as last time, where we had to wait in line for a good 30 minutes just to get in.
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| Entrance to restaurant |
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| Waiting in line |
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| The restaurant is a LOT larger than what's shown. |
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| Plastic bags full of seafood ready to be cooked. |
We asked our food to be divided and prepared in every way possible: steamed, grilled, raw, and soup. After a good amount of waiting, our menus were delivered to us one by one.
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| Wasabi is squeezed out like poop. That's what you get from local cheap fish markets! |
Everything was pretty tasty, but I wish we could have had something spicier. Or some king crab. God, the table next to us were
feasting on crab and all three of us seriously considered begging them for a bite. But whatever - we still got to sample quite a lot of different seafood, more than half of which I can't even name. We had a good laugh over this, actually... it seems I couldn't answer any questions directed at me - me, the local Korean. What's the name of this? What's the proper way to eat this? So is this grilled or steamed? Is Noryangjin originally a traditional neighborhood? Is it safe to eat this part? I can't even recall how many times I just went "er....... I don't know....." so we all agreed I'm apparently not Korean enough, and there's no point in asking me anything. If I may make an excuse, she only asked me the hard questions! I'm sure there are plenty of Koreans who know less than I do. I still felt sorry though, that I wasn't a very informative guide for the day. Oh well, we enjoyed ourselves anyhow, and I guess that's enough.
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| Absolutely beautiful :) |
As for the place itself, I'm not sure I would want to visit again unless someone asked me. Though delicious, I don't think the food here is particularly cheap, and the restaurant is super crowded, loud, cramped, and with below average service. Maybe if I go to a different restaurant next time it might be better. And if I do come back at all, I must go for the king crab. Must!
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