Seoul: Eating Live Octopus and Fresh Seafood Caught by a Mermaid
What interesting things are there to eat in Seoul?
-Eating Live Octopus
Below is a live demonstration of me eating the live octopus and the following are steps to accomplish this feat.
1. Take the train to the Noryanjin Station.
2. At the Noryanjin Station, ask around for directions to the Noryanjin Fish Market. Or sniff around and let your olfactory senses guide you to the place.
3. There'll be hundreds of fishmongers peddling their seafood to you, they'll be fawning over you and beckoning you to come over to stroke and caress their very exotic catches such as whale sperm, 10-year old oysters, giant hairy crabs, spiky sea urchins and the more normal creatures such as flounder and salmon. Stop by shops that sell the octopus. Don't feel pressured to buy at any time, and take your time to walk up and down the aisle of the market until you find your favorite octopus.
4. Haggle like crazy. Pretend that you're not interested in the seafood and even do the old trick of pretending to walk away, it's an elastic market with so many other competitors out there. You should be able to get a discount of about 10-20%.
5. Pay for your octopus, you get the touch it, and then the fishmonger dumps it into a bag for you to bring it to the restaurant to marinate.
6. When you get your marinated live octopus, take a bit and quickly chew it. You'll feel that the tentacles are gently sucking into the insides of your oral cavity and even your tongue. It's a very hair-raising and interesting feeling. This movement is caused by the nerves in the octopus still carrying action potentials. Before you swallow it, take extra care to ensure that the octopus tentacles has ceased its squirming and wriggling tendencies, and with a big gulp, swallow it. There're many horror stories of individuals suffocating from swallowing live octopus, but I believe that if you take your time to bite and chew, you're reasonably safe.
7. Pat on your back.
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| Live Octopus marinated in Sesame Sauce |
- Having a mermaid feed you
In South Korea, there are the traditional sea woman who are called hai nuis, and they do free-diving. Which as a diver, it's a really dangerous thing where they dive several feet into the sea to scout for abalones and octopus and other amazing sea creatures.
Prior to South Korea, I always thought that this was a mythical foodies' folklore, but then I walked along the beach and spotted this mermaids.
Crikey.
You go up to the head sea woman and order The Typical, they don't have any other alternatives, they serve the same thing to every individual, which consists of octopus and gonads and fresh abalone. But it tastes really different from all the seafood I've been eating! She literally dives down, comes up with a bag of seafood, cracks it open with a big hammer, and serves you the food straight. I can literally taste the sea brine along with the seafood.
Really do try it since this is a dying occupation as the current generation are unwilling to carry on this legacy because of the early mornings, the extremely cold water and the harsh physical conditions.
-Eat Raw Liver
I was quite squirmish about this when my Korean friend suggested that this initially. But after deliberating for about one second, I said yes.
I was presented with a plate full of bright red cubes of liver, and told to dip them into a salt or a marinated sauce and swallow it. Very unique and distinct taste, but not something that I can appreciate much.
- Eat Pig's Intestine
Pig's Intestine or gopchang, is adored by many South Korean girls for its purported high collagen content, for smoother skin. This dish is served in many little restaurants along alleyways, as they barbecue the intestine on a hotplate.
Although gopchang is really oily and greasy, the Koreans work around this problem by placing little bread pieces along the hotplate to absorb all the grease. You're not supposed to eat it. But my fellow dining partners wanted to try oil-laden bread, and swore that it was really delicious. Still quite skeptical.
But the gopchang! Gosh it was really good, the intestine had a nice chewy and firm texture, the aroma of charcoal-grilled meat and the special homemade dipping sauce made it really great.
Yay hope you try all this yummy and interesting food in Korea too!
Really do try it since this is a dying occupation as the current generation are unwilling to carry on this legacy because of the early mornings, the extremely cold water and the harsh physical conditions.
-Eat Raw Liver
I was quite squirmish about this when my Korean friend suggested that this initially. But after deliberating for about one second, I said yes.
I was presented with a plate full of bright red cubes of liver, and told to dip them into a salt or a marinated sauce and swallow it. Very unique and distinct taste, but not something that I can appreciate much.
- Eat Pig's Intestine
Pig's Intestine or gopchang, is adored by many South Korean girls for its purported high collagen content, for smoother skin. This dish is served in many little restaurants along alleyways, as they barbecue the intestine on a hotplate.
Although gopchang is really oily and greasy, the Koreans work around this problem by placing little bread pieces along the hotplate to absorb all the grease. You're not supposed to eat it. But my fellow dining partners wanted to try oil-laden bread, and swore that it was really delicious. Still quite skeptical.
But the gopchang! Gosh it was really good, the intestine had a nice chewy and firm texture, the aroma of charcoal-grilled meat and the special homemade dipping sauce made it really great.
Yay hope you try all this yummy and interesting food in Korea too!
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