Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015-Busan-Jagalchi Fish Market(釜山扎嘎其市场)

Jagalchi Fish Market is hailed as the largest Seafood market in Korea.

Not surprising though since Busan is a port city and seafood is in abundance here.

We took Line 1 of Busan Metro and alight at Jagalchi station. Take exit 10 and you will first see a street of fruit vendors.

Road sign

Fruits in Busan is also considered cheaper than what we see in Seoul and they look so yummy fresh. Didn't buy anything though since we will be moving up to Seoul and it's difficult to carry them with us and not possible to finish them with our short stay here.

Yummy looking strawberries

Came to an intersection and we turned right. Here restaurants with big tanks filled with different seafood lined up on both side of the streets. Ajummas standing outside were trying to figure out which language we spoke switching between English, Chinese and Japanese.

But these were not the place I have in mind for lunch. Wanted to look for the big market where you can choose seafood and get them to cook for you. Hehe.

After the row of restaurants came the seafood market where you can see all sorts of seafood on sale.

It's really fascinating for us to see so many kinds of seafood which we have never seen before. 

Big ass squids

We try not to disturb the vendors while looking at their products since we are certainly not buying anything. The vendors were also chatting among their own and ignoring us since we don't look like local coming here for marketing.

Fishes on sale

Girls be warned though if you cannot stand fishy smell of the market. Since it's a seafood market here, the fishy smell is pretty strong and not to mentioned that the floor is permanently wet with the water either from melting ice, seafood or just normal washing water.

Some big shells

At the end of the market, we found what we are looking for. Jagalchi Market where seafood vendors occupy the 1st floor the sell their seafood and you will choose there. Then they will direct you to the 2nd level of their affiliated or own cooking stall where the chosen seafood will be cooked and served.

Jagalchi Market

Truth to be told, we have no particular stall in mind. Since we look like tourists, we thought it would be unavoidable that prices would be jerked up while the vendors sees us. So we had an agreement that if the prices are decent enough then we would buy from the stall and need not compare prices since we are both hungry from all the walking.

Crabs

We entered the air conditioned market and  was in awe with so many stalls selling all kinds of seafood. It's nothing like what we see in our markets. You get to see so many varieties so seafood that you didn't know what to choose and also there are so many kinds available.

There was this stall who had a ajumma that speaks little mandarin and she managed to communicate with us. Since we are able to communicate with the ajumma we decided to patronize her stall.

Different kinds of shells

Sea cucumber

The drawback of coming here as a couple is we couldn't order a lot of food. I was quite disappointed but was careful not to over order. The ajumma was nice enough to run us through all the available variety to choose and patiently answer our questions.

Abalones

In the end, we decided to order a mixed variety soup, meaning to say they will make soup of whatever ingredients we choose. The ajumma advised us to choose a variety of shells and make the soup. We tried asking for the price but she said it will depends on what we choose.

The shells we picked out

The shells we picked out amounts to 10,000 KRW and Mr Love suddenly had a craving for prawns and so we picked up some for the stall next door. We opted for them to be grilled this time.
Prawns were priced at KRW 15,000 for those we picked out.

The ajumma helping us to pick prawns

Prawns on sale

Was happy with our chosen food but the ajumma was still trying to sell us more seafood. Was really tempted to try the crabs but was afraid that we couldn't finish it so we held back.

Our lunch

The ajumma then called someone on the 2nd level to come down fetch us to their shop. They will also be cooking our chosen products. We were told that there is still a cooking fee applicable and also to pay for the side dishes.

This is consider normal procedure for all seafood purchases here.

We were told to pay KRW 25,000 for the cooking and side dishes. Didn't expect it to be as expensive as the seafood. No choice since we need someone to cook the food. Muhaha

Dining area

But since is here already must as well go ahead.

The seashell soup was really superb. Despite only having seashells and spring onions in the soup, it was tasty and clear. Besides finishing the shells, we finished all the broth.

Our seashell soup

Grilled prawns were great too, large and succulent and worth every bit of the price paid.

The funny thing is thought these look little but it was actually filling. We were too full to move after finishing them all, luckily we didn't order more of others.

But I saw the next table having cheesy shells, I was really very tempted by the them.

Grilled prawns

In total, we paid KRW50,000 for the meal. Actually it was still acceptable given the quality of the food. Didn't regret checking out here but hope that the next time when visit there may be a bigger group to order more things to try.

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015-Busan-Gamcheon Culture Village(甘川文化村）

 Gamcheon Culture village which is Korea's answer to Greece's Santorini is the first confirmed place to visit in Busan. Got to know here after watching Running Man. This is also the main reason why I planned to come Busan despite hearing quite a few commenting that Busan is boring. But seriously, we like here better than Seoul.

Toseong Staion, Busan Metro Line 1

Exit 6

Directions:

1). Take Busan Metro Line 1 and alight at Toseong station.
2). Take Exit 6
3). Walk straight and you will see a convenience shop at the corner, turn right onto the street.
4). Continue straight and you will see a bus stop in front of Pusan National University Hospital.
5). Take Bus 2 or 2-2.
6). Alight at Gamcheon Culture village(There will be English announcement at this stop)
7). Walk to your left facing the street, turn left into 1st lane
8). This is the entrance of the village and there will be a kiosk selling village maps.

While waiting for bus

We were quite lost after alight from the bus and mistakenly went to the opposite side where an elementary school is. Some kind soul later direct us to the correct direction when he saw us taking the uphill of the school.

Map of the village

We came to a house which houses some history exhibition which we did not understand since it's all in Korean with no English or Chinese translation. Went in to walk one round and came out.

Old notes

Pretty flowers in bloom

 I really didn't know where to go from here so we just wonder out in the village on the street. There isn't much activity here on a weekday.

Long street ahead

Cute random piggy

It's a laundry shop that says "Computer cleaning"

We came across a fish wall mural and stop to try take a photo with it. But too many of tourists are doing the same thing at the same time so it's pretty impossible to capture it individually.

Fish mural

 Truth to be told, there was nothing much to do here except to explore the neighbourhood. There are occasionally one or two cafes and souvenir shops here and there.

Local provision stall

 We walked around aimlessly and then I realised there is a observatory tower at the top of the houses. Proceed to climb what but not without much complaints from myself. Hehe

House number

Current Korean President was here some years back

 The climb was was really worth it. View was splendid though wind got stronger and we were nearly blown away.

Bird's eye view of the village

We tried squatting down behind the railings to hide from the strong wind without any success. End up, it was decided that we should quickly take some shots and seek shelter down hill.

Colourful houses

 A bit of history of this place : During Korean War, refugees from other part of Korea settled in this neighbourhood. They were also followers of Taegeukdo religion which believed in Yin & Yang. Houses here are initially wooden shacks but are later re-developed to what we saw today.

We were in awe of how the houses are built on the hill side, making it look like stacking on top one and other.

Check out the strong wind with our hair all over the place

A wider view of us with the village

The other side of the observatory tower

One of piggy before we descend

 We could stand the cold any more and went down after 10minutes of photo taking. Had the wind be milder, I would have consider buying a cuppa and sit on the benches here to sip while taking in the sights. But to do this now, we would have to risk freezing our asses off. Not to mentioned risk of getting the flu bug.

There is a cafe just a flight of stairs up the street level and we ducked in for a hot drink. Or at least I need the hot drink. Mr Love had the trusty thermos which I filled with wheat green tea for him.

Piggy with the cafe's figurines

We walked around more after getting warmed up with the drinks. We saw a local hair salon and peep in half expecting to see ajummas perming their hair. No such luck and we walked away giggling among ourselves while urging each other to go in and change our hair style.

Culture Hair Shop

There are more views of the village as we walked along the side. Guess we are still on high ground since we are still getting bird eye's view of the village.

More view of the village

There's a cafe which is not open but seems like is for couples to dine here judging from the decorations outside. There are a lot of notes on the roof but we are unable to get up since its not open for business.

Cafe no open

Then we saw a Little Prince statue sitting by the edge looking afar. Below it's feet it's the roof of some people's house and there is no way you can get down to take a photo with the Little Prince.

Who places the statue like that for photo taking??

Back facing statue

Still trying to figure out

You know what is the greatest invention during this point of time? Selfie stick! Muhaha.

Since we are unable to take a decent picture with our hands outstretch, then we stretch out the selfie stick. And viola! It did the trick and we are also able to see the face of The Little Prince.

Really, why placed him this way?

Wonders of the selfie stick

With the fox

Mr Love trying once with the selfie stick

We walked a bit more down hill from the statues and came across a photo tower. Seriously the view from here was pretty limited with the squarish cut out for photo taking. Took a photo here and moved on.

Not much view

The road down hill seems to be all residential area and we decided to turn back since there was nothing much to see from where we are standing.

Didn't regret making a trip here. Maybe there will be more activities during weekends but it will also be crowded. Am glad we get to see a near empty village.

We took bus 2 back from the opposite bus stop back to Pusan National University Hospital.

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