鷺梁津海鮮市場

Hoe Platter and rock crabs from old Noryangjin fish market 

The new Noryangjin fish market is housed in a new, modern, bright and shiny building. It is clean, neat and comfortable with much better bathroom facilities. But I prefer the old Noryangjin fish market - the dilapidated, smelly and perpetually slippery and wet marketplace adjacent to the new building. The bathrooms were a horror show that stink up to high heaven, but it had all the charm and nostalgia of a real, traditional wet market. Haggling over prices and weights with stall operators was vigorous, boisterous, but a hell of a lot more fun. It felt genuine. In the new market, bargaining feels half hearted on both parties, like conducting a business transaction, and who needs that outside of work.

On this particular visit, I brought a platter of very fresh assorted raw fish for 20 dollars, and 2kg of live rock crabs for about 9 dollars. The fish tasted great, and the crabs were meaty and full of roe.