BUSAN, March 15 – Explore and eat away at the second largest city in South Korea. The city offers an endless feast of good things especially the freshest seafood.
Unlike bustling Seoul, the quieter city is more manageable for beginners to explore the rich Korean culture. You can also easily access these food spots by subway, bus or even by walking.
Marine wonderland
Koreans take their seafood seriously and one of the best ways to experience the ocean’s bounty is at Jagalchi market, which means Pebble Village in Korean. It’s touted as the largest seafood market in the country.
The market opened in October 1970 and is located at Nampo Port. Between 2003 to 2006, the market was modernised and it now occupies a seven-storey complex.
The first two floors house a multitude of stalls selling fresh seafood, dried seafood and restaurants. In addition, the complex also boasts a guesthouse and observatory.
Leading up to the market, the entire area is peppered with stalls selling all kinds of street food and fresh seafood. The stalls are often manned by middle-aged women or Ahjummas. Lining the streets are restaurants that cater to the locals with tanks filled with wriggling eels and octopus.
Bump shoulders with the Busan folk by eating freshly-cut eels still twitching away, cooked with chopped onions, chillies, garlic and ssamjang or red pepper paste over a hot grill. As you wait for your food to be cooked, toast each other with soju shots. Once the eels are cooked, it’s bundled up with perilla and lettuce leaves. You can also add a bowl of rice with the remaining mixture to line your stomach as you drink .
For a variety of seafood, walk into the market and you will be tempted from a mind-boggling display of sea produce. Some you will recognise straight away like fresh oysters, abalones, scallops and mussels. Avoid the strange prickly orange sea squirts, as they stink of ammonia.
Pick your “live” seafood selection and they’ll clean and cut the items. Your seafood will be brought upstairs where it can be cooked as you wish.
We sample the oysters or gul freshly shucked with lemon juice or steamed to imbibe it with a slight sweet taste. The prized abalone or jeonbok is grilled in the shell with butter. It’s utterly delicious with its tender texture. If you dare, go for the “live” octopus or sannakji. The tentacles are chopped and sprinkled with sesame oil and sesame seeds.
As you chomp down on the raw writhing bits, you don’t taste much except for its chewy texture. You can also order fresh fish sliced sashimi style. The fish bones are subsequently cooked in a stew. Every October, the market holds a culture and tourism festival that draws visitors from all over.
Jalgachi Market,
B27-1, Nampodong 4-ga, Jung-gu
Get off Jalgachi subway station and take exit 10. Turn right onto Jalgachi 3(sam)-gil and walk for 5 minutes, you will see the multi-storey market.
Open daily: 8am to 10pm.
To market to market
For a slice of local life, head towards the early morning market. Here is where you find innumerable kinds of kimchi, the cornerstone of every Korean meal. Some are made from whole cabbage, long spring onions and whole radishes; you name it and it’ll be pickled.
You also get salted fermented seafood like jeotgal made from items like crabs, octopus or even mentaiko. Eat the jeotgal with stews or even make kimchi. Everything is prepared on the spot signalling its freshness. As you store the kimchi longer, the flavours slowly develop.
Walking through the market, you find all kinds of fruits and vegetables that look like they were plucked fresh from the fields. You also get a variety of dried vegetables that are used to make soups. Grains are also a healthy staple for the Korean diet, as seen from the vast assortment available. Pick your grains of choice and the stall owner will grind it straight away to be added into porridge or drinks.
Seafood is in abundance with choices like all kinds of seaweed or salted fish like mentaiko or the marinated roe from pollock. For the fearless, grab a handful of silk worms that taste like toasted peanuts. In addition, the vast market also sells all kinds of household goods.
Walk down the alleys to satisfy your tummy. Unique to Busan is the pork rice soup or dwaejigukbop. It’s easy to spot the outlets serving this delicacy, as you find ladies stirring a smoking hot milky soup made from hours of boiling the pork bones.
There’s also rows of pig heads that line the shop’s front. Your order will warm the tummy as the rice is soaked in the nutritious broth filled with vegetables and a scoop of ssamjang to give it extra kick. Like all the Korean meals, you wrap the boneless tender pork slices in lettuce that is topped with kimchi made with chives, fermented small prawns that resemble our very own cincaluk and a dollop of ssamjang. It’s similar to bossam, the cold pork dish but this version comes with a comforting hot soup. Some restaurants even offer pig’s intestines or soondae version made from pig’s blood, if you’re brave enough.
If you prefer a sweet aromatic snack, go for the soft walnut pastry. The tiny walnut shaped cakes are filled with an aromatic azuki red bean paste with walnuts. Look for HoduPangPang, a family run business at the market that is popular with the Japanese tourists. You can also nibble on spring onion pancake or pajeon that is cooked on the spot for you.
Bujeon Market
573, Bujeon1-dong, Busan
Get off the Bujeon subway station and use exit 1.
Open: 4am to 8pm. Closed first and third Sunday.
Stop for food
If you’re feeling peckish after pounding the streets of Gwangbok-ro for bargains, look for this mukja golmok or food alley, that literally means “let’s eat” in Korean. The narrow alleyway is filled with numerous stalls manned by middle-aged ladies selling inexpensive tasty fare. Grab a low stool and order a bowl of bibim dangmyeon or translucent noodles made from sweet potatoes that you mix with red pepper paste, spinach and carrots.
The bowls are lined with plastic bags to save washing up. Another simple treat is the chungmu kimbab – seaweed wrapped rice rolls served with fishcakes, crunchy radish and garlic chives pickles. You can also find pajeon, soondae or blood sausage and japchae, another type of noodles. During the hot weather, refresh with sikhye or a cold rice drink. In colder times, look for the old lady selling a tummy comforting hot grain beverage made with toasted soy powder.
Mukja Golmok Food Alley
Get off Nampodong subway stop and take exit 2. Walk and locate the alleyway is opposite PIFF square and can be found by walking between Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and a drugstore. Open during the day.
The Korean adventure continues next week.
This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on March 14, 2014.
