Noryangjin Fish Market

On the last day in Seoul, we visited the Noryangjin Fish Market. There were not many people but there were so much seafood from small fish to big fish, prawns to big hairy crabs, clams to abalones and baby squids to giant octopuses. However as we walked down the lane, every shop was actually similar in the seafood they were selling. Some of the sellers would try to talk to you persuading you to buy. There are also Chinese nationals there whom we could communicate with.

Finally, we settled for a flatfish sashimi. We chose the smallest in the tank and it cost us W20000. The stall tender sliced the fish swiftly and pieces of pink meat was laid neatly onto a styrofoam plate. We were then asked to go into the small stall to eat our sashimi. It was actually the space he used to kill and slice the fish. It was a bit gross so we paid and found a place to sit down to eat. The texture of the meat was tender. I especially liked the meat around its fins. As for taste, the meat was tasteless. It was a big plate for two of us and we got super cold eating in the cold weather. Hence we tried to find a restaurant to see if they could cook it for us.

We were lucky to enter this stall managed by an elderly couple. The stall is located by the staircase of the overhead bridge. We ordered kimchi stew and requested the ajuma to put the fish slices into the stew. She was very kind and didn’t grumble, scold or charge us extra. The kimchi stew was accompanied with Korean black rice (Heuk Mi Ssal 흑미쌀) and cost only W4000. We had a set each and the hot stew warmed our chilled bones.