We first met Dhal 2 years ago when the Color Nomads came to Mui Ne to do some graffiti. Despite only meeting him for a very brief time, Fabian encouraged us to reach out and meet up for a quick drink. Luckily, Dhal managed to find some time in his busy schedule for us!
We had heard that Seoul is the place known for eating squirming live octopus! (yes, you read that correctly! ..but they're technically not still alive when you eat it them..) We wanted to try, so Dhal met up with us at Seoul's Wholesale Fish Market, Noryangjin, to start us off on with an awesome authentic Korean food experience!
We stopped at one of the stalls and Dhal asked us what we wanted to eat. Since we had no clue what half of the sea creatures even were (!!), we asked him to recommend something. He picked octopus, sea cucumber, and some other sea critter called gaebul, which looked a lot like bloody intestines (we later learned that it's a marine worm with a pretty funny/appropriate English slang name.. click here to see an entertaining and informative post about it :)). We left with our little bag of live sea animals and continued wandering through the stalls.
Our next stop was a stall with an aquarium, where the seller asked Dhal if we wanted a rock fish. We said sure, so Dhal pointed out the one he wanted, and within seconds our live little rock fish was scooped out and sliced up into sashimi. We proceeded to the small eating area across the aisle.
This is what makes the fish market experience so unique - you browse the aisles, pick what you want, then bring it to a restaurant stall where they "prepare" your purchases for eating. Dhal told us all of our selections were best eaten raw, so... when in Rome...! The one cooked item we did have was a wonderful soup that they made with the remaining rock fish carcass. We were also sure to accompany our meal with a local rice alcohol called Soju. Dhal told us it's important to drink with the meal to help disinfect the raw foods.. so we made sure to drink a LOT! :)
For the not-so-squeamish, here's the video of the octopus that is so freshly chopped up that the tentacles squirm and stick to your tongue as you chew!
The fish market was so much fun that we weren't ready for the night to end just yet! We took a taxi to a restaurant nearby Dhal's atelier and tried some Korean Pork Belly BBQ. We've had Korean BBQ before, but in Korea the meat is a little different than what we're used to - super thick slices of meat with a lot of fat on them. To our surprise, the taste was amazing and of course you can't have another Korean meal without... another soju (or 2)!
We stopped by for a quick tour of Dhal's studio and since it was still early we went to a nearby local bar to try stir fried tofu & kimchi.. and more soju, of course!
This is where our super fun night with Dhal ended....Thanks Dhal!! :)