A Taste of the Sea

Yesterday afternoon at work we asked our Korean coworkers what their plans for New Year's Eve were. No one had anything particularly exciting planned (as the solar new year pales in comparison to the lunar new year over here), and most just planned to enjoy the 5 day weekend. All except for our poor friend Nah Ri. Instead of relaxing, or shopping, or spending some time with her boyfriend, Nah Ri will be ringing in the new year at her mother's fish market stall - for eleven hours straight everyday. Apparently this is a pretty normal daughterly duty. How glad I am Confucious never ventured west.

Anyways, apart from giving our condolenses on a lost vacation, we took the opportunity to explore a side of Korean cuisine that we've hitherto ignored: seafood, and more specifically, raw fish. So Nah Ri drew us a map to the fish market and we promised to stop by around lunch time the next day.

After getting a bit lost in a random shipyard, we finally made it down to the seaside. Nah Ri was waiting for us and looking very un-teacherlike.

The Ulsan fish market area is nothing like its quaint, sterilysed counterparts you'll find in the western world. No, the Koreans seem to care little about image, and this is a working area through and through. We passed countless piles of netting, ropes, traps, drying squid, and various sea refuse on the way to the markets.

The picture above shows the outside of the fish market, built on a pier. From this view it seems pretty peaceful.

Not so once you're inside though. Like the one we saw in Busan, these markets are jammed with shoppers looking for a deal on octopi, eel, or pretty much anything else you can imagine. And I can't forget to mention the smell. You'll have to use your imagination, but there're thousands of fish packed into an area the size of about two lanes in a bowling alley and there are fish guts everywhere. Anyways, it reminded us of why we've been wary of seafood here for so long.

About half-way down we came to Nah Ri's mom's fish shop. Her wares were pretty much the norm: eel, unremarkable grey fish, and the stripy guys in the bottom right corner (below) that you'd expect to see in a fishtank, not on your plate. This left us pretty much at a loss when asked what we'd like. We just told Nah Ri to give us whatever tasted the best and then we crossed our fingers.

(No, these fish don't look happy, and yes, we did feel guilty.)

Nah Ri's mom didn't want us taking her picture, so you'll have make do with just her apron and rubber gloves. Here she is weighing the fish. It came to just under 2 kilograms, but she only charged us for 1, and she threw in another smaller fish for free (literally). I guess it's good to have connections in the fish world.

(Here's our lunch right here. No idea what he actually is.)

After buying our lunch, Nah Ri guided us across the road from the market to a raw fish restaurant. Apparently it's completely normal to choose your fish at the market and then bring it to a restaurant where they serve it with side dishes. You only pay for the side dishes.

When we sat down they covered our table in paper, and began laying out the spread...with a definite seafood theme. At the top-left is kelp, at the top-right are those shellfish with the pretty corkscrew shells (raw), and in the middle on the right are raw oysters. Both of us tried everything. We wavered a bit on the raw shellfish, imagining what kind of stomach bugs might be in store for us, and even though their beachy taste left something to be desired, we were still glad we tried them.

Then the main course came. Korean raw fish certainly isn't all about presentation like its Japanese equivalent. The idea was to wrap some of the fish in a lettuce leaf, along with some sauce, dip it in wasabe and soy sauce, and voila! An interesting idea for a meal, but Shayne and I still prefer kalbi (same thing, except replace the fish with barbequed pork).

Thankfully our hostess brough us some soju to wash it all down with. It still weirds us out to receive the equivalent of a micky of vodka at a meal. But hey, it's Korea so what can you do?

Even though I doubt this will become one of our regular Korean meals, the experience was definitely one-of-a-kind. Plus, after so many blog entries about our boring life, we thought we should spice things up again with some local flavour. Although the flavour of this meal was a little suspect, at least we don't have to feel guilty about not having tried the seafood here yet. Check that one off the list.

Until next time,
Jo