Seoul’s Noryangjin Fish Market

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Our goal for tonight was to visit a traditional Korean fish market - and not just any fish market, we wanted to see Seoul’s oldest and largest: Noryangjin Fish Market. It meant that Chris, in charge of the trip’s transportation, got to figure out how to use the subway to get us to Seoul.  Right away when we exited the subway station, we knew our boy had done good … “Oh it smells fishy,” Chris announced.

 

Noryangjin Fish Market is big enough to house 700 vendors who sell 250 to 300 tons of seafood every day.

 

Equipped with an escalator, inside the Noryangjin Fish Market feels just like a shopping mall for fish

We intended to walk around the market to take it all in and decide what to buy. Miss assertive sales lady had different plans for us. She whipped a live king crab out of the water and was practically ringing us up. “₩70,000 is a really good price,” she assured us. We tried to translate to her that we wanted to look around, so she started throwing in free clams. Hearing our escape ploy - saying we wanted san-nakji (small octopus) - she quickly started bagging that up as well. We gave in. She made it all too easy for us and we couldn’t say no. Although haggling is expected at the market and I was pretty sure she was asking too much, we didn’t even bother negotiating.

 

Noryangjin Fish Market is like an aquarium … where you eat the exhibits.

 

We stopped at the first vendor we saw with live seafood.  The market also sells fresh and dried seafood.

We were here for the live king crab. 

 

Each fish stall is associated with a restaurant upstairs, so after we paid for our bounty, we were whisked up the elevator to a specific establishment where they would prepare our fish. 

Served so fresh, the san-nakji (“baby” octopus) is still wiggling!

 

I had a really hard time picking up the slippery fella and an even harder time with the thought of putting the squirming piece into my mouth! I was literally scared … people have actually died when it suctioned to their throat!

 

“My jaw is tired from chewing the octopus,’” said Chris, making sure it was good and dead before he swallowed.

 

I don’t want to ruin my reputation of not liking fish, so I won’t admit that the crab was scrumptious!

 

Our visit to Noryangjin Fish Market was a lot of fun and a unique experience – I highly recommend it!

 

Logistics:

We paid $54/₩74,000 downstairs for our live seafood (₩70,000 for king crab and ₩4,000 for octopus). At the restaurant we paid another $28/₩39,000 for our drinks, sides, and to prepare the food.  If you want to skip out of the fun of choosing your dinner, you can just go straight upstairs to a restaurant and place your order.

Use this website to see today’s fish prices (translate to English, don’t click on the English page):  https://www.susansijang.co.kr/nsis/miw/intro

 

The naver app makes taking transportation here easy. Our T-Money card was charged ₩1900/$1.42 each way from Suwon to Seoul on the 50-minute subway ride.  While the train is the fastest way to get from Suwon to Seoul, it wasn’t an option to us since the market isn’t on the train line.

 

Waiting single file to get on the subway 

For Chris, going to the workplace here really exposes him to the people and culture. He comes back each day with all sorts of interesting observations and stories, which would be a blogs-worth to share.  It sounds like they are impressed with his itinerary and the fact that he knows what garlic is (?!). My workday at the hotel room, on the other hand, is isolated and quiet except for my daily interactions with our housekeeper and the Starbucks barista.  My entertainment is the frequent public service announcements regularly buzzing my phone and watch. Usually warning of a delayed train or to take caution in the heat, today’s PSA was pretty alarming: “Training air raid issued. Go to a nearby shelter! Please evacuate to an underground shelter.” I googled it and read that war could break out at any moment. Apparently, the trash balloons North Korea has been sending over the border recently could escalate quickly. My dad warned me to stay away from “the guy up north with the missiles” and it sounds like he was right. I looked outside and despite the air raid, everyone was carrying on business as usual. So, for now I’m going to take comfort in the United States Level One travel advisory for South Korea - and put my nose back into my work.

Public safety phone alerts

Watching the air raid drill from the safety of my hotel room.




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