TIME goes fishy in Seoul

Street Fare - Marine Corps
Dec 18, 2004

Few overseas visitors ever make it to Seoul's all-night Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market. And that's a shame, because when it comes to venues for a seafood binge, Noryangjin, at least as far as Asia goes, easily rivals Tokyo's renowned (and tourist-ridden) Tsukiji Market. Deliveries from Korea's 15 main fishing ports (and further afield) arrive at about 1 a.m. Wholesale auctions begin shortly after and last until 8 a.m.—but there are hundreds of retailers on the 66,000-square-meter site, too, with prices about 30% below Korean norms. You can buy whatever takes your fancy—king crabs from Russia, snow crabs from North Korea, abalone, squid and sea cucumber—and have it prepared in one of the eight restaurants overlooking the market hall. Most of these specialize in sashimi (hwee in Korean), steamed crab and seafood-based hot pots, such as the fiery maeoontang. Typically, prices aren't stated: instead, restaurateurs ask a small fee for dressing your catch and serving it with wasabi, chilies, raw garlic, sesame leaves and lettuce. It might not be everyone's idea of breakfast—but for color, it sure beats the hotel coffee shop. By Graham Pieman’ Holliday - TIME

Thanks to FatMan Seoul for input and a great blog post. For the record, TIME edited Fats out although how they dared do that I do not know. Here's what he had to say about the traders at Noryangjin, “As you can imagine, they’re there to do business. Every stall has its own ‘tout’ standing out front soliciting business,” says Korea-based food blogger, Fat Man Seoul. “They’re not there as props for tourists.”

Comments

[Reid]

Hi Noodlepie,

How could they edit out Fats? That was one of my favorite posts of his -- that and the recent "Nakji".

[fredddy bing]

Superb work - love the journeys and forays into the culture and the people - what food! Fantastic ! We can only dream from Melbourne, but certainly the next best thing. Onwards and upwards - all strength to you.