Sashimi'd in Sokcho!

On the weekend I took a trip to the east coast of Korea to see Seoraksan National Park and do some hiking. From the top, my friend Jill and I took in some amazing sites of forests and cities below, and the Sea of Japan in the distance (or the East Sea, as Koreans refer to it). On Sunday we headed to the fish market at the harbour in the city of Sokcho.

Entering into the tents seen on the left in the above picture, we encounter a series of rowdy ajummas eager to sell us some raw fish. We hand an ajumma ₩20,000 (about $20 US) and she steps inside the tanks with her trusty net and rubber wellington boots and snatches us some fine looking specimens.


The squid squirts a load of salt water onto the pavement as the ajumma tosses it and the rest of our fish into this strainer. I have no idea what kind of fish we're about to eat but they look good. A few steps away, four more ajummas are ready to end these fish and filet them for us.


We sit down on the pier and dig in. Here is Jill loving it up. We dip the fish in soy sauce with wassabi, or the red hot pepper sauce, and put it into a piece of leaf lettuce, and eat it.





Everything was delicious. I wish I knew the names of the goddamn fish! The orange-red thing in the middle was really slimey; one of them scaley; and the squid was still squirming around as we ate it. Its suction cups were latching on to my tongue as I tried to swallow it!