As it was a fair day, we decided to head for fresh makan at the Noryangjin Fish Market which is an extensive farmers fish market in the neighborhood of Noryangjin-dong.
(Above) From the subway station, move out of the station and up one level to access the bridge adjoining the Noryangjin market.
(Above) Together on the bridge to Noryangjin market
(Above)At the end of the bridge, you will come across the rooftop carpark of Noryangjin market. Move one level down to access the restaurants while the market stalls are on the ground floor.
(Above) The market scenes
At the market, you buy your own ingredients from the market below and bring it to whichever restaurant you wish to patronise. They will charge you a small fee for preparing and cooking your seafood buy. For us, it cost about SGD$15 for the soup, preparation and side dishes plus vegetables thrown into the soup. We surveyed the restaurants above and were choosing between a japanese one and a korean one and were won over by the friendliness of an ajuma from the korean restaurant.Good thing was that she spoke mandarin being from china, harbin and that made communication alot easier. We told her our budget and what we were looking for - fresh fish and octopus and she accompanied us down to the market to haggle with the stallholders to purchase our seafood ingredients.
(Above)Ajuma informing us the price of the live flatfish she has bought for us
(Above)Choosing our octopus for lunch
(Above) Upon entering the restaurant, you need to take out your shoes and put it in a trash bag and bring it with you to your table.
(Above) Seated on the floor, waiting for our seafood soup to be brought to us. Spicy soup is cheaper than clear soup so we opted to eat it in the Korean way- spicy.
(Above)Gayle cooking our ingredients in the soup
(Above)Delicious spicy soup
(Above) As Gayle wasn't so keen on eating it raw with the tentacles squirming in her mouth, we told the ajuma to cook the octopus. You can have a choice of eating your seafood sashimi style and throwing the live octopus into the soup in front of you as most Koreans do but we took the cautious route by having everything boiled. Besides, it's a little cruel to see the live octopus squirming in the hot boiling soup being boiled alive.
Talking about eating in the Korean restaurant at the market, don't expect courteous conversation. The Ajumas will tell you off if they see something not done properly. We observed that and we ourselves also got an experience. Gayle was 'told off' when she told the ajuma she didn't know how to switch on the gas canister for the portable stove. The Ajuma said that all women should know how to operate kitchen stuff.
(Above) Boiled octopus
(Above) After a hearty lunch, we walked back across the bridge and spend some time taking in a view of the city and the traffic below.You can see the iconic 63 building across the Han river in the background which is our next destination for the afternoon. More on that in the next posting....
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