My cousins Lew and Louise recently traveled to Korea. A highlight of their visit to Seoul was an excursion to the Noryangjin Fish Market. Located just south of the Han River, this enormous market teems with fresh seafood 24 hours a day, year-round. Here are a few photos and impressions from Lew and Louise:
One needs an impervious nose and strong stomach to venture near the Seoul fish market, which is probably why so many South Koreans have never seen it. The stench of fish is evident several blocks away.
Rows and rows of slithering seafood are often lined up obsessively. The salespeople stand proudly nearby.
There are big tanks of live fish, small tanks of snails, buckets of octopus, and trays of shrimp, crab, stingrays, and other strange sea creatures. Choose your delicacy and the salesperson will gladly beat it to death and wrap it to go!
One of the least appetizing but most interesting markets we have ever visited!
Details:
Noryangjin Fish Market is located at 13-8 Dongjak-gu (east of Building 63).
Subway stop: Noryangjin station, Line 1. Take exit 1.
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What amazes me about these sorts of places is the shear amount of goods they must be moving each day. Fresh seafood doesn’t stay fresh for long even with refrigeration so you gotta figure a fair percentage of it is sold off each day which in turn means more coming in the following morning. I wonder how many fishermen it takes to keep up with the demand.
Great point about the fast perish & excellent question about # of fishermen. I don’t know the answer to that. However the supply seems to be well calibrated to demand, and they’re certainly moving a huge quantity every day. Amazing!