Finding Nemo

On Saturday I went to Noryangjin fish market in Seoul which is basically 66,000 square meters of fresh seafood, mostly live. As we walked on the overpass, I knew we were close as the smell became more and more potent. The odor was no where near as bad as I had expected, though. We obviously left smelling like seafood, but since it was so cold outside, and inside the market for that matter, I was not overwhelmed with fishiness. I have no idea how you would choose between the vendors; each row had about 15 different stands, all selling the same type of sea creature. This is the view from above:




Anything that lives underwater, right at your fingertips.






Picking a live fish to have killed in front of you really takes shopping for food to a whole new level. The vendors will basically just throw the flailing fish onto a scale and whack it with a stick that has a hook on the end. Kind of savage, but interesting to watch. I couldn't help but scream "Oh my god!" each time that I watched this. The vendors would then mock me by saying "oh my goddd" in a squeaky annoying voice. I tried to contain my ditz comments, but it just came out, like tourettes.

Some of the fish were already dead, like this monkfish whose entire internal organs are exposed. Apparently you are supposed to eat the whole fish including the guts?




The most jarring image was this shark head. The seller flipped it over to show us the teeth, probably because he read from my face that I was totally stunned. It literally gave me chills up my spine.



I sampled some raw squid before we headed out; salty, chewy, and slimy...interesting.