A few Sundays ago I made it to Noryangjin with some friends, the largest fish market in Seoul. It was pretty crowded, even for a Sunday night.
One of the great things about Noryangjin is that you can buy some fresh fish and take it downstairs to a number of different restaurants where they’ll prepare it for you.
The fish vendors themselves will do the preliminary work.
Skate looked tempting, but we settled on sea snail, octopus, and eel:
A fight was about to break out as we entered this restaurant, so I think we made a pretty good choice:
We had to buy a plate of Korean style sushi (hue), but it was delicious. In fact, we’d gotten ahead of ourselves and brought way too much food for three people:
The large plate in the background is the hue (couldn’t tell you what kind of fish, but it was raw and yummy) along with various sauces. The styrofoam package holds a bunch of thinly sliced raw eel.
I was the one who wanted sea snail, so here it is — steamed. Honestly, I think it was a little overcooked. Not bad, but not my favorite either. And what’s that pearlescent mound behind the snail? San nakchi, of course. Raw, live octopus!
It was my second encounter with live, diced octopus. The hard part is keeping the tentacles on your chopsticks long enough to get them into your mouth. And yes, the sucker pads will latch onto your lips and tongue.
Here was the main course, roasted eel:
This was absolutely delicious. The red sauce was actually a little bit sweet as opposed to super spicy, which was kind of what I was expecting (this is Korea, after all).
Here I’ve got a sesame leaf filled with some raw eel, a dollop of samjang (pepper and soy paste), and a sliver of raw garlic. Mmm, mashiketa!
Even if you aren’t a fan of raw seafood, Noryangjin is worth checking out just for the sheer spectacle:
But really, how could you pass on such delights as eel, sea snail, and flailing octopus?
