Korean Fish Market

There is always a first time for everything, and while I've always loved English fish and chips i have never really been fond of sea food or raw fish.  A couple of weeks ago it was parents day in Korea a time when children give gifts to there parents, its like the Korean equivalent to mothers and fathers day i guess. Well anyway my girlfriends family decided to celebrate with a trip to Gangseo fish market to buy fresh fish, have it prepared then eat it back home, so although it was not my cup of tea i'm always open to trying new things and experiencing other culture.

This particular fish market is made up of 2 floors, first of all the ground floor of which is full of independent sellers, who try to persuade customers to buy from there fish stalls, although the benefit of being a foreigner was no one hassled me to buy from stalls. Theres a vast selection of sea food in the sellers tanks such as octopus, giant crabs, lobster and shell fish, however we stuck to the fish. Upstairs consists of restaurants that will cook and prepare the seafood you have bought for a price however we did not visit any as we took home what we had bought.

The picture above shows the fish we bought to eat raw, the fish were caught and prepared into sashimi(raw fish sliced into thin pieces) there and then. As i wasn't a big fan I also purchased mackerel to be cooked so i i wasn't a fan of the sashimi i could have something I could enjoy.

To be fair the raw fish we bought wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be and the salmon was actually really delicious, the other fish was OK but to be honest it was a little tasteless and chewy for my liking, the mackerel on the other hand was prepared beautifully by my girlfriends mum, she had battered the fish like we would back home, so i was extremely  grateful for this.

All in all it was an interesting experience for me although i probably wont be running out to buy any raw fish soon, tho in saying that I'm off to Osaka, Japan this week so i could be sampling raw fish sooner than I think. For those of you looking to check out a Korean fish market the most famous and popular is Noryangjin Fish market the address is posted below.

How to get there: Noryangjin Station(Line 1–Exit 1, Line 9–Exit 2). Walk along the overpass to the market.