After whetting our appetites on a boat trip past misty headlands such as these, we headed for the Jagalchi fish market. I loved this place. I enjoyed it a lot more than the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, maybe because I didn’t visit after drinking sake with Ainu carpenters until 5am, getting up at 7, eating a McDonalds sausage and egg McMuffin SET before trying to look at raw and live fish and shellfish in a giant, dimly lit, wet underfoot shed whilst crazy Japanese guys driving mopeds and mini forklift trucks loaded with tubs of writhing octopus tried to run me down…
Jagalchi market is spread across a number of buildings, with all the side streets lined with stalls, some as impromptu as a piece of tarp on an upturned box. It may look a little shabby but the fish was so fresh that most of it was still live. Those fellows above had just been chucked out of a lorry onto the ground and were still leaping about. Two guys were stuffing them into polystyrene boxes, weighing and stacking them, presumably before they are delivered to retailers and local restaurants.
We went into one of the market halls where you can inspect the poor creatures mushing around in their tanks before haggling a price with a tough-faced man wearing an industrial apron and wellies and holding a knife. The lobster was 100,000 Won (it was massive though) and the crab was 80, so we went for a couple of fish (40k between four of us, just over 5 quid each), asking for them to be half-sliced into sashimi (hoe / 회 in Korean) and half-fried. (Yes, we had a native speaker with us.)
From flapping around to table in a matter of minutes. We drank beer and soju and dipped the fish in chilli sauce, soy sauce and wasabi, eating with metal chopsticks or wrapped in salad leaves with raw garlic and chillies. It was absoulutely delicious. Especially the eyes.
Korea Change 