Feeling Fishy

After a while in Namdemun, I decided to head over to the Noryangjin fish market. This is not a standard tourist destination, but you all know how much I geek out over markets and food, so this was a must-see for me (if you don't know how much I geek out over this stuff, please send me an email because we should get to know each other--full disclosure, I stole that joke from my friend Jill). It's basically acres and acres of fish in all forms--live, dried, on ice, etc. And there are all different kinds of shellfish and other things on display. Enormous mussels, stingrays, and some of the biggest crabs I have ever seen. Check out the pictures below. I don't think they even do it justice.

One of the coolest things about Noryangjin is that for about 15,000 won you can get a plate of sliced sashimi that was swimming about an hour ago. The food is incredibly fresh. I bought one such plate, and was brought over to a little picnic area at tha back of the market to eat it. You take a couple of pieces of fish and wrap it in a lettuce leaf with red pepper sauce, fresh garlic and jalepeno. It's simply outstanding.

Also at the picnic area was an older Korean man, who wanted to drink with me. He kept pointing to a cooler of soju and saying "Soju! Soju!" I showed him my bottle of water and offered him some in a glass. He asked "alcohol?" and I shook my head, no. He poured a little in his glass, smelled it, and then dumped it out. He said, "Soju!" again. You would think I would have learned from my epxerience the other night. But I thought to myself, "Self, how often do you get to share a bottle of crappy sweet potato liquor with a total stranger with whom you can't communicate in the back area of a fish market?" The answer: not very. Besides, in case you haven't figured it out, I'm incredibly susceptible to peer pressure. So I bought a bottle of soju, and we split it, about three drinks apiece. In Korean culture you never pour your own drink, so we took turns pouring for each other. The woman who ran the little area also joined us. A good time--well worth the woozy subway ride home.