Finally, My Very Own Blog: The Wonderful World of Fish

On Sunday, Matt, Sun, Julie, Young Suk and myself headed out West to 서래포구 (Soraepogu), a small fishing town about an hour outside of Seoul. It was a wild place, smelly, loud, and packed with people; overwhelming to the senses, but in a fantastic way. Stall after stall selling the most diverse array of seafood I have ever seen. Fresh, dried, pickled, sliced, salted, preserved, grilled, boiled, and of course ALIVE....you could get your fish any way you wanted it here.

I have always thought the ocean to be a mind boggling and bizarre place. Everytime I go to an aquarium I wonder at the oddity of the creatures that come from the sea.....I mean, have you ever really LOOKED at fish? They are strange! And there are so many different types, all of them equally weird and wonderful. Being at the fish market was a real reminder of this fact, but it also make me marvel at a few other things.

First of all, I was struck by the sheer quantity of food produced by the sea. The amount of fish available in this ONE market on ONE day was just incredible. I know the ocean is a huge place, but this was a real reminder of exactly how huge it is.

The other thing that stuck me was how yummy everything from the sea is.....

Here is just a sampling of the delectable treats available at Soraepogu! I've included lots of upclose photos of the wide array of weird things, to either fascinate or gross you out :-)

Inside these shells is a tasty little creature to suck out.

Raw crabs preserved in soy sauce, peppers and garlic.

A steamed bread stall created a very mystical feel in this part of the market.

A woman strings together baby octopuses. (Or would that be octopi?)

I think these are manta ray (which I have tasted before and do NOT recommend - tastes like carpet, at least the way they prepare it in Mexico.)

And the award for most revolting sea creature goes to.....

Flounders with both eyes on the same side lay slowly dying on the rack.

Fresh sashimi anyone?

My personal favorite of the sea treats.

A women expertly hacks apart a fish to make sashimi

"And if you buy some fish, I'll throw in this octopus for free!"

Escaped fish from a tipped bucket make a desperate, futile attempt to flop to freedom.

A fishermen spends the afternoon mending his nets.

Piles of salted shrimps, a key ingredient in making kimchi.

A beautiful array of shellfish

Shrimps drying in the sun outside the market.

A women wrangles with angry octopuses. Every few seconds, one would squirt a blob of ink into the air, which is also why the water in the tub is black. A few seconds after I took this photo, Matt's pants got hit by one with an amazingly far shot.

Shellfish on display outside a restaurant.

The best part is always the food....after working up our appetites wandering through the market, we settled down for a fishy feast. Sun ordered a giant tub filled with shellfish of every shape and size, which we barbequed right there at our table. Oh, and of course they were all still alive. It was a little unnerving to watch the poor creatures squirm as the heat slowly took its toll, but dang did they taste good....