Living in Korea we have access to, and eat, a good amount of Korean food on a daily basis. However, when we have food cravings, it’s usually a taste of home – like classic non-Koreanized, American-style food or pizza that has not been topped with canned sweet corn – that we seek. When we traveled to Busan, Korea’s second largest city, we knew that we had access to some of the most popular and well-reviewed American-style restaurants in Korea. And yet, we chose to eat seafood. Because, Jalgachi Market.
Jalgachi Market, otherwise known as the place where people eat live baby octopus, is Korea’s largest fish market of its kind. We initially assumed the market was contained in a single building, but we quickly learned that the market spanned many streets, consisted of hundreds of small mom-and-pop shops, and filled several multi-level buildings. In search of a particular restaurant, we entered one of the multi-story buildings and were immediately pulled and tugged every which way by all the fishmongers wanting our business. Menus were thrust in our faces and vendors called out their best sales pitches from across the room. Buckets and tanks of fresh seafood lined the front of each make-shift restaurant. A man reached into one of the tanks, pulled out a spiny lobster, squirming and frantically wiggling its legs, and beckoned us to sit down at his stall. “Big one for you,” he smiled, “Fresh.”