One of the best meals of my life: Busan's seafood scene

On our way back from Kyushu last week I had a chance to tour Busan. The second largest city in Korea, Busan is located on the Southeast tip of the peninsula. There are very popular beaches for tourists, and Koreans alike, lots of bustling nightlife and some world famous seafood.

Here is a slightly blurry sideways look at Jagalchi Shijang. Sorry, I got tired of trying to format the video.This is an amazing example of what the East Sea has to offer. Badass old ladies tearing down fish from whole in ways I could only dream of being able to do. Everything is extremely fresh, and butchered right there in front of you. This is the most famous fish market in Korea. There were somewhere around 30+ different types of fish here, extraordinarily large shellfish the likes of which just don't exist anywhere I've been in North America, and plenty of other sea life for sale. That stroll was a feast for the senses that got my tummy quite excited.

Later after some walking around town we ended up around the dinner table at a pretty standard seafood spot in Seomyun: Jo Gun Hwan Gun. This was the first time I felt at home in a restaurant aside from all the fried chicken joints I have been frequenting. It was packed full of people, servers were running in every direction and everyone was having a good time. The food was simple: Shellfish served to us raw for us to prepare.

So on these three plates (one of which you can't see) are scallops (shown), mussels as big as my palm, sea snails as big as the aforementioned mussels, huge clams and shrimp. All of it seasoned very lightly. The scallops with just scallions, the mussels with red pepper and a little slightly sweet vinegar and the rest just plain. Some sauce was provided that consisted of tomato and a very bland cheese. which we heated up and stared at.

On the side was sesame oil and chile paste for dippin'. All the seafood was grilled in the shell and promptly poured down my throat over and over again. This stuff was amazing. The texture alone destroyed all my previous shellfish experiences. I could not get enough. Shellfish in the west pales in comparison to any one thing on our table that night. I never knew shellfish could be this delicious. Simple food done right. Keep in mind this place was not anything special in the grand scheme of Busan's restaurant scene. 

I will be returning to Busan before I leave Korea. This meal was one of few in my life that was so consistently delicious. Bye for now, I will attempt to blog on a more regular basis from here on out. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment if you have any questions you would like answered, things you'd like to see or just to tell me how attractive I am physically.