Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015-Busan -Wonjo Jeonbokjook (元祖鲍鱼粥）

Since trying abalone porridge in Jeju the last time, I fell in love with it. So I went to research for anything similar that we can go to in Busan.

It's lucky that Mr Love is pretty cooperative with me in Korea. He was not a fan of Korean cuisine for that matter but he was asking me to try all the Korean food like Jajangmeon, fried chicken, abalone porridge, bimbimbap etc.

Imagine how happy was I to hear that?

I did highlight a few places to try but didn't say much and decided to play by ear. In fact I was a bit prepared to eat fried chicken or fast food for our 10days here already.

Anyways, since he requested I obliged.

There was this pretty famous abalone porridge shop in Haeundae area. So after visiting Haedong Yonggungsa, we were back in Haeundae for lunch.

Shop front

The shop is somewhere near Paradise hotel which Mr Love had pointed on to me our 1st night in Haeundae but for the wrong reasons. He was saying the name itself did not match with the hotel outlook. Well, but it did left an impression in me so I roughly know where to go.

Directions:

1). Take metro to Haeundae station
2). Take exit 3
3). Walk straight once your are out of exit 3 till you hit the intersection facing the beach. You should see Novotel Busan Hotel opposite you.
4). Cross over to Novotel Busan and walk along the outside of the hotel.
5). Turn right into the small lane at the end of Notovel Busan
6). Walk straight . You should see Paradise hotel in front of you at 200m.
7). Once you past Paradise hotel, there is a small lane between it. Turn right in and you can see the shop as per above picture.

Showcasing the food sold here

 Shop was pretty empty at 11+am since it is not lunch time yet. And there are English translations in the menu. Easy.

Menu on the wall

Different abalone dishes

 Like many of the shops, it only specializes in abalone dishes. Porridge, soup, bimbimbap, sashimi and dumplings.

Trying to get wifi

 Were pretty hungry so we ordered 2 Jeonbokjook at 12,000KRW each and 1 abalone seafood soup at KRW8,000.

Still trying

 The porridge was served pretty fast and it was green in colour, am not sure why. We though they might have added mung beans to cook the porridge. Muhaha The Jeju version we had was yellowish.

No matter what they added, we couldn't make it out. We can only taste the sweetness of seafood in the porridge. Also they added sesame oil to it as the taste was pretty obvious.

There is only 1 big piece of abalone in the porridge as per the picture. But as you savour the porridge, you can taste the smaller chop up pieces. Definitely worth the price paid.

Porridge served

Quite a lot of side dishes too

 The soup came out last and was served with rice. Guess this is a set meal. But we are only interested in the soup.

Hot Abalone seafood soup

 This is a bit spicy but nothing that we cannot handle. There is a whole abalone inside along with squids, mussels, bean sprouts etc. Again, sweetness of seafood is apparent in the soup.

Mr Love and I spilt whatever seafood we can find inside and I left all the veggies to him. Hehe

Whole abalone in the soup

 Total bill is KRW32,000 (SGD40) but we left the shop happy and filled. It was not too expensive if you asked me and it nice having this hot meal in the midst of winter.

Fresh abalone reared in tanks