Korea: Seafood Market
For those of us who weren't ready to turn in for the night, the tour bus dropped us off at a seafood night market a walkable distance from the hotel:
Dried, live, grilled, there was seafood as far as the eye could see. All around, little old Korean women were hard at work:
We'd reached the end of the alley and were on our way back when one of the ladies in our tour group flagged us down. She and her husband had just bought some sashimi and they wanted to share.
Who were we to turn down free sashimi?
They'd gotten flounder, squid, and sea squirts:
The lady who served them kept trying to get money out of them. First she charged them for chopsticks and when they tried to argue about it, she carried the food to a table and claimed the money as a service fee. Okay...
Anyway, the seafood was fantastic. Especially dipped in the gochujang. I stayed away from the sea squirts, but the flounder and the squid were both super fresh and super delicious.
The best part of the night was when en route to our sashimi rendezvous, someone from a restaurant lining the street tried to lure us in by showing us his fish. He scooped out a flopping sole in his net and somehow or another the sole seized his chance for freedom and heaved itself into the gutter. (Insert Andy Williams' "Born Free".)
It was all rather dramatic. We were cracking up, but the poor restaurant guy was understandably put out. That fish was probably worth 20 bucks. (We nicknamed the fish 20,000 Won, which is the Korean equivalent of $20.)
Thank you, couple from Atlanta for your generosity. Even though I don't speak Korean and contributed absolutely nothing to the conversation, it certainly looked and sounded like a lot of fun.
And 20,000 Won, I hope you're swimming free in the ocean blue. Live long, my friend.
Dried, live, grilled, there was seafood as far as the eye could see. All around, little old Korean women were hard at work:
We'd reached the end of the alley and were on our way back when one of the ladies in our tour group flagged us down. She and her husband had just bought some sashimi and they wanted to share.
Who were we to turn down free sashimi?
They'd gotten flounder, squid, and sea squirts:
The lady who served them kept trying to get money out of them. First she charged them for chopsticks and when they tried to argue about it, she carried the food to a table and claimed the money as a service fee. Okay...
Anyway, the seafood was fantastic. Especially dipped in the gochujang. I stayed away from the sea squirts, but the flounder and the squid were both super fresh and super delicious.
The best part of the night was when en route to our sashimi rendezvous, someone from a restaurant lining the street tried to lure us in by showing us his fish. He scooped out a flopping sole in his net and somehow or another the sole seized his chance for freedom and heaved itself into the gutter. (Insert Andy Williams' "Born Free".)
It was all rather dramatic. We were cracking up, but the poor restaurant guy was understandably put out. That fish was probably worth 20 bucks. (We nicknamed the fish 20,000 Won, which is the Korean equivalent of $20.)
Thank you, couple from Atlanta for your generosity. Even though I don't speak Korean and contributed absolutely nothing to the conversation, it certainly looked and sounded like a lot of fun.
And 20,000 Won, I hope you're swimming free in the ocean blue. Live long, my friend.
lol long live 20,000 Won !
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