Busan: Food Galore

The Dongnae pajeon that we missed....

Food is a big thing for me. I am curious enough to sample most food, as long as they are no longer moving when served. In particular I am big on using ingredients that is in season to whip up simple, healthy fresh food.

I have to conclude my Busan chapter with FOOD which I have sampled, right here in Busan. It deserves a page of its own. The abundance, the variety, the freshness, the wisdom behind them and …..….simply outstanding value.

The first thing we did on arrival in Busan is to buy the famous Busan Kim Bap (김밥). This is the Korean seaweed roll, a variation of Japanese sushi roll. Why is this one so popular (they have an outlet in Myeongdong in Seoul where a long queue is often seen forming outside the shop )? How can I explain it? Freshly cooked rice are rolled with multi-colored vegetables in a seaweed sheet. Then a little sesame oil is brushed on the roll. Because the ingredients are freshly prepared and well balanced, the kimbap makes a great meal on its own. But this kimbap has more. They serve it with a side dish containing squid and fish cakes cooked in a sauce, very much like the sauce they cooked their rice cakes in. It is a little spicy, but not overpowering, so you can taste the freshness of the squid and the fish cake. Kimbap makes a great value meal, especially when you are on the road. We packed ours and have them at Taejongdae park. We also packed another lot for Gyeongju.

I have written about strawberries. Simply delightful. We ate to our heart’s content for under US$1.

Also very memorable is the fried fish. Ocean-fresh fish of all kinds, fried in a little oil to perfect crispness – that is all that is needed for a great snack/meal. Really, I could have this EVERYDAY.

We sampled too many snacks along the way, and did not have room for a full fledged seafood meal, or the famous Dongnae pajeon, both highly recommended in guide books. So little time, so little room, so much to eat, how?  

Ever since I saw those fresh catch at the Jagalchi and the dried seafood produce they sell in Busan, I would love a culinary tour, if available, to learn about the abundantly available ingredients, their health effects, how to handle them and of course buy them home!

Kim talked a lot about the health effect of many Korean food along the trip. For example, seaweed soup, hangover soup (a special fish soup that is good for hangover), the orange looking creature... and I believe the sesame oil too. I see many Koreans have thick black hair, clear skins and are generally tall. Strongly link to their cuisine I suspect. I wish to understand the wisdom behind their cuisine, to eat like that, and see if my thinning grey hair will turn thick and black again......

Finally one morning in our guest house in Gyeongju, Kim shared this hangover soup recipe with me:

1. Fry the fish (literally translated – North Fish) in a little sesame oil.
2. Add water and boil for 1 hour to bring out the flavor.
3. Put 1 stalk of green onion (and salt and a little soy sauce) into the soup.
4. Boil another 10 minutes.
5. Add one or two eggs
6. Drink on its own, or serve with rice.

Now, I have to get hold of this “North Fish”....