Seafood feast

[ponyo]

I visited heaven on earth called Jeju-do, South Korea. It’s big island off the southern coast of Korea and similar to Hawaii. But lot prettier and with much better food than Hawaii. I ate the most amazing seafoods while at Jeju-do.

fresh seafood pot
hotpot abalone rice


grilled mackerel


grilled abalone


fresh abalone and conch caught by Jeju island haenyeo (female divers who free dive without oxygen tank)


haenyeo ladies preparing my abalone and conch sashimi


abalone and conch sashimi


Grilled Jeju beltfish


beltfish completely deboned using spoon and fork


some of the amazing banchan (small side dishes)

 

[ponyo]

abalone sashimi banchan


Raw crab fermented in soy sauce


Jeju black pig pork slices


Just amazing fresh seafood at Jeju-do island. Must visit if you go to South Korea.

 

[DigDog]

how much did you pay for that?

my idea of heaven is king prawns @ dirt cheap. dont need fancy, just need large quantity.

 

[ponyo]

how much did you pay for that?

my idea of heaven is king prawns @ dirt cheap. dont need fancy, just need large quantity.

About $40 for the above seafood hotpot. That had crazy amount of seafood in it. My wife and I had difficulty finishing it because it was so much food.

I paid around $25 for abalone hot stone rice for 2 which included two abalone rice bowls, all the side banchan, and grilled mackerel. The abalone rice was amazing. They used the gut and Innards of the abalone to flavor the rice. And it had pine nuts and other things in the rice. Simply superb.

And plate of the grilled abalone was about $25. The abalone was the softest and most tender abalone I ate in my life. It was so good.


Conch and abalone sashimi at haenyeo diver stand was about $43. That was ripoff but I wanted to support the female divers. They are dying tradition.

And the beltfish meal was $95. That included two abalone rice bowls, grilled beltfish, and all the banchan sides. And banchan sides are all unlimited except for abalone sashimi. The food at the beltfish restaurant including all the sides were incredible. Definitely the best meal I had in Jeju island and one of the best meals I’ve had in my life. Pictures and words can’t describe the amazing food. It’s just little things and ingredients used they got right. It’s hard to explain unless you’re familiar with the food and how involved it’s to make some of those dishes.

But it’s not because of the food I said Jeju-do island is like heaven on earth. It’s because how beautiful the island was. I don’t think I visited prettier place in my life. It’s how I imagine heaven would look like.

 

[Scarpozzi]

They built a Captain D's last year a mile from my house. Winning!

 

[Captante]

Wow .... looks delicious!

 

[Herr Kutz]

Looks disgusting

 

[gill77]

Never been to Jeju-do, but I found the food in Korea to be fabulous.

Maybe some day.

 

[ponyo]

Never been to Jeju-do, but I found the food in Korea to be fabulous.

Maybe some day.

I hope you get to visit someday. Seoul is like New York while Jeju-do is like Hawaii. While I was in Jeju, it was orange season so all the trees were completely covered with mandarin oranges. If you love nature and seafood, there’s no better place to be than Jeju-do, IMO. Seoul and Jeju-do are two must places if you visit Korea.

Today is my last full day in Seoul before I leave for Taipei. I can’t wait to visit the night markets in Taipei and try all their wonderful food.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Homie ate a few hundred bucks of abalone for $60.

 

[sdifox]

I hope you get to visit someday. Seoul is like New York while Jeju-do is like Hawaii. While I was in Jeju, it was orange season so all the trees were completely covered with mandarin oranges. If you love nature and seafood, there’s no better place to be than Jeju-do, IMO. Seoul and Jeju-do are two must places if you visit Korea.

Today is my last full day in Seoul before I leave for Taipei. I can’t wait to visit the night markets in Taipei and try all their wonderful food.

Go to Tainan if you want wonderful food. Also try Japanese food in Taiwan.

 

[ponyo]

Go to Tainan if you want wonderful food. Also try Japanese food in Taiwan.

Didn’t get a chance to go to Tainan or try any Japanese food in Taiwan. We stayed in Taipei for four days and saw lot of the major attractions and visited couple of night markets. Shilin Night Market was insanely packed. I never saw so many people packed in such tight quarters.

I didn’t think the food in Taipei was as good as food in Seoul or Jeju but there’s really good food culture in Taipei and people love to eat. Personally I enjoyed the stir-fry restaurants in Taipei. I loved going to Taiwanese Beer Houses to eat in the evening after a long day of sightseeing and exploring. Nothing better than sharing couple plates of stir-fry seafood and veggies and drinking some Taiwanese beer. I even tried some stinky tofu I received as service. It was marinated in soy sauce so it was extremely mild. I couldn’t detect any foul odor and it was surprisingly good.

 

[sdifox]

Didn’t get a chance to go to Tainan or try any Japanese food in Taiwan. We stayed in Taipei for four days and saw lot of the major attractions and visited couple of night markets. Shilin Night Market was insanely packed. I never saw so many people packed in such tight quarters.

I didn’t think the food in Taipei was as good as food in Seoul or Jeju but there’s really good food culture in Taipei and people love to eat. Personally I enjoyed the stir-fry restaurants in Taipei. I loved going to Taiwanese Beer Houses to eat in the evening after a long day of sightseeing and exploring. Nothing better than sharing couple plates of stir-fry seafood and veggies and drinking some Taiwanese beer. I even tried some stinky tofu I received as service. It was marinated in soy sauce so it was extremely mild. I couldn’t detect any foul odor and it was surprisingly good.

There was a reason I said go to Tainan
Taipei get all the regional foods, but pale in comparison to authentic local foods.

 

[nutxo]

My favorite korean food was "Kenturkey fried chicken" . I was there 3 times in the 80's and saw signs all over the place for this.

 

[Mai72]

Lived in Jeonju, South Korea for over 2 years. Ate a lot of seafood when I was there. Also a lot of pork.

The seafood in Korea is huge. I didn't care for it TBH. I'm not a seafood person to begin with, but I also live on the Jersey shore. The seafood here is much different. Same when I lived in Thailand. I liked the Thai seafood better than the Korean seafood. Maybe it was just me. The Korean barbaque though. Good stuff. I'm going vegan for the next month though.

 

[ponyo]

My favorite korean food was "Kenturkey fried chicken" . I was there 3 times in the 80's and saw signs all over the place for this.

No one does better fried chicken than the Koreans. Really, KFC should stand for Korean Fried Chicken. Koreans have mastered fried chicken.

Of course I ate Korean Fried Chicken. There's like billion fried chicken places in Korea and the best part is they all deliver even late at night.

And I had chicken sandwich from Mom's Touch for the first time. My wife and daughter both raved about after returning home from their summer trip. So I had to try the chicken sandwich. I got the chicken sandwich with fried egg and shrimp. It was indeed very good and better than any fast food chicken sandwich I had in the US. I think the sandwich was like $5.

 

[ponyo]

Lived in Jeonju, South Korea for over 2 years. Ate a lot of seafood when I was there. Also a lot of pork.

The seafood in Korea is huge. I didn't care for it TBH. I'm not a seafood person to begin with, but I also live on the Jersey shore. The seafood here is much different. Same when I lived in Thailand. I liked the Thai seafood better than the Korean seafood. Maybe it was just me. The Korean barbaque though. Good stuff. I'm going vegan for the next month though.

The reason why Korean seafood is the best is because they care so much about freshness. It's crazy how much they care about whether the seafood they eat is alive just before being cooked or brought to the table. You don't find that even in Japan.

The fishes on this sashimi plate were all swimming in the tank like 20 minutes before.

The only seafood that wasn't alive prior to being served was the salmon.

And they give you the entire fish with hardly nothing wasted. You get the leftover fish head, bones, and tail in form of spicy stew.

https://imgur.com/MUJXGOS

And you can only find san-nakji in Korea. I'm not a huge fan of this dish as I find it highly overrated but it's definitely worth trying at least once.

https://imgur.com/kO7qjoI

And of course I ate Korean BBQ. You can't go to South Korea and not eat awesome Korean Hanwoo beef. Check out the marbling of this fine Hanwoo beef I ate grilled over this lump charcoal. The quality of lump charcoal used in South Korea was unlike any I found in the US. The quality of the lump in South Korea is off the charts.

 

[CrackFiendCracker]

Woof Woof (hint hint)