Noryangjin Fish Market

Seoul's fish market was recommended to us by one of Ausitn's coworkers as her favorite place in Seoul. I will tell you it was not our favorite place, but it was a fun thing to see. I think part of the reason it lost its wonder with us is because in traveling to Sokcho and Jeju we had seen many of the sights we saw here. However, the giant prawns were new. 

We drove down from our hotel and traffic was not too bad! We were able to get there in about 20 minutes. The parking lot looked a little sketchy, so Austin missed it the first two times we made passes, but finally I was able to show him that it was, indeed a parking structure even though it looked old and rickety. As soon as we got out of the car it smelled like we were at the ocean, even though we were several miles away from actual ocean.

The whole premium fish row

Overall, it looked like a fish market. There were water and puddles all over the floor, people hawking their fish, and little restaurants ringing the market part to cook what you bought. It was much dirtier than anything else I have experienced in Seoul, but I think that is the nature of fish markets.

Many of the items being sold I would have no idea what to do with them or how to eat them. To be honest, I would not even want to eat them! They belong swimming in the ocean! 

They sold the squids in bunches and strung them together with wire through their heads. I thought this was a pretty good idea.

These snails were definitely alive and spitting water at us!

 We wandered down several of the aisles and then decided we had seen enough- it was time to purchase something! We went back to the "premium" fish aisle, where there were tanks with fish and giant crabs and stuff, and found our giant prawn to share. 

Austin picking our prawn. She wanted to give us living abalone to kill, and some baby octopus to eat alive, but we passed on that

Once the nice lady had made her sale, she put the prawn in a baggy and brought us up to the restaurant. They gave us limited condiments and cooked our prawn for us! Landon wandered around while we waited, and eventually made his way back down to the market where he got to touch some real life sea creatures. It was kind of like a touch tank except, well, their fate was to be eaten.

Finally our prawn came. The utensils for eating it included tongs, scissors, and chopsticks. Again, Austin and I felt like toddlers trying to get the meat out of the prawn, but eventually we prevailed. Landon did not want any so he snacked on nuts- his go-to snack food these days. 

We were almost done eating when Landon decided he wanted to take a picture. I held the camera for him and helped him aim. So here it is- Landon's first assisted picture of Austin eating prawn.