DAY 2 In SEOUL (Part 1)

(Above) Top view of Noryangjin Fish Market

The next day, we will getup at 7am to grab something light at the continental breakfast buffet spread downstairs before heading out for a 10 minutes walk to Anguk station. From Anguk station, we will take a train to the next stop at Jongnosam-ga Station which will allow us to make a transfer from Line 3 to Line 1. 6 stops away from Jongnosam-ga Station, we will alight at Noryangjin Station. Stepping out of the station, we will probably get a whiff of something fishy and follow this smell down the long overhead pedestrian bridge which will bring us to the rooftop carpark of Seoul’s famous fish market – the Noryangjin fishmarket.

This fish market is a wholesale auction market with 700 shops selling all manner of seafood, and they provide the bulk of seafood into Seoul and the surrounding regions. The auction is conducted between 1am to 6.30am and the very same seafood will find its way to restaurants all over in time for their day's business.


(Above)All kinds of fish roe or caviar on display and for sale


The retail market takes off where the auction ends and business is conducted until the late hours of evening. Here you can find a wide array of seafood from Russian king crabs to North Korean hairy and snow crabs, abalone, sea cucumber.


(Above) Octopus on sale
What we will probably want to try here would be the live small octopus(above) though I will have to convince Gayle to have a go at it since she’s not too keen on the wriggly tentacles. Small octopus (낙지) called sannakji , is a popular delicacy here and eaten cooked or raw. If eaten raw, it is eaten whole or sliced up, its tentacles still wriggling as it goes into your mouth. It would be interesting to feel the suction of the tentacles as you chew on them.


(Above)A dish of Gaebul with innards

We will also aim to try pinkish worm-like sea slugs(above) called gaebul (개불). There are also bright red ones are known as monggae (멍개) . Both of these are usually eaten raw. Since our Korean language is non-existent, we will probably pay a little bit more and go up to the seafood restaurants(heard that there are 8 of them)on the next level of the market. While these restaurants "specialise" in hwee (회) raw fish, steamed crabs and other seafood-based dishes and soups, they share a unique feature as they have no food on offer but rather they will prepare or cook whatever customers buy from the market and bring up to them. They will do the preparation for you, plus provide the side dishes and prepare hot soup. We will probably also order through them and chuckle at the waitresses yelling our orders down to the stall holders at the fish market.

After having our fill of seafood, we will head down back to Noryangjin station. There we will take the train on Line 1 to the 3rd stop at Seoul Station where we will transfer to line 4 and alight at the second stop from Seoul Station to arrive at Myeongdong which is one of Seoul’s main shopping district.