Thursday, July 24, 2008

Something smells fishy, a pictoblog

I recently took my first trip to Noryangjin Fish Market (노량진역/Noryangjin Station, Line 1). It's similar to most other fish markets in the country - rows and rows of fresh sea creatures straight off the boat - cleaned, sliced, and diced in front of your very eyes.



You can pretty much find anything here - small shrimp, medium shrimp, big shrimp, ginormous shrimp (or prawns?), crabs, stingrays, octopus, mussels, clams, and a wide range of unidentifiable squirmy looking things.



The fun part, however, is buying your fish and having it sashimi-ed on the spot, or alternatively, taken to a restaurant in the vicinity to have your just-purchased meal prepared right then and there. (Noryangjin also has a handful of these places, located on the 2nd floor.)

A word of caution: enough time spent walking around the market will make you VERY fishy... you just might not smell it till you get home!

We opted out of trying Noryangjin's selection this time around, but I thought I'd share some of my recent fish experiences (mostly in Gangwondo)...

An octopus let out of his cage.



Filleted "Korean style" sashimi, or hwe (회). The fish head was still "breathing."



If anyone can help me identify this lovely sea monster pictured below, I'd appreciate it. I have a sneaking suspicion it might be gaebul (개벌)... and if that's the case, I swear I had no idea what it was at the time of force-fed-consumption.



The fish we bought from the market - cooked to perfection.



Mysterious spicy fish soup...



More mysterious spicy soup. If raw fish isn't your thing, wait for the soup to arrive, and throw it in shabu shabu style.



Typical side dishes at a seafood restaurant.



Don't forget the soju!



The only place I've seen this yummy broiled corn-mayo concoction is at seafood restaurants. I usually eat about 2.



Great place to go sightseeing.



Who needs an aquarium when you've got Korean fish markets, really?



5 comments:

InMySeoul said...

Those fish stews look really good!!

As for the sliced reddish colored meat that you think might be 개벌(dont know what that translates too)...anyways I had the same experience in Busan because I was told that it was famous for its fish. I had that exact same meat...I was thinking maybe it was sashimi eel? If you find out what it is let me know cuz Im interested. I also had what I believe was like sashimi konch? It was really tough...lol

The Korean said...

It's actually spelled 개불. Delicious thing it is, and unique to Korea.

InMySeoul said...

What does that translate too in english? Is it a fish, eel, crestation?

S. Frank Kim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
S. Frank Kim said...

It's a type of spoon worms. (It doesn't sound very appetizing when it's described like that, does it?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urechis_unicinctus