One of the things I consciously did just before and during my trip was to learn to read Korean script. It’s a phonetic system so it’s a lot easier to read than say, you know, Chinese. And because of its historical ties with China, there are borrowed words from the Chinese language which made it easier to pick up. The number system for instance, is so similar to Chinese it took me something like 5 minutes to memorize and learn.

On my first day, I made it a point to read to myself every sign that I came by so I was quite ready to read by sight menu items by the second day. The most useful term I learnt was how to ask ‘What is this?’ Each time I found something interesting, I’d ask what it is and cache the term in my head for use the next time I want to ask for the item. And that brought me to visit this wharf.

I don’t think I had exact directions to this place. It was one of the attractions in the tourist brochures but directions were vague, along the lines of ‘take the bus for 45 minutes and you should be there’. I caught some glimpses of the sea and saw these brightly-colored rows of shops and figured that I should get off because even if I were lost, there’d at least be good sights. Compared to this place, Haesindang Park and Hwanseong Cave are as touristy as Disneyland.

It was just after lunchtime when I took a stroll along the wharf. There were all these tanks of sea urchin and I asked in my rather bad Korean how much they cost. They were sold by the kilogram so I attempted to explain that I was but one person and couldn’t finish that many of these things. The owner of this particular shop was kind enough to cut up two of them and offer them for free. They were caught that morning and we sat around the tanks eating them with our pinkys. Uni at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo doesn’t compare to this.

I managed to hold some semblance of a conversation with the shopkeeper and tried to ask where to find some 회 – the Korean equivalent of Sashimi – for one. From what I know, the standard procedure is to buy a fish and have them slice it up but the fishes I’ve seen thus far look family-size.

In the direction I was guided, there were quite a few shops selling amazing looking crabs. I attempted to ask if I could get some cooked and after a lengthy debate involving 5 people from 2 different shops, I was shown to this steamer where the guy pulled out a bunch of crab legs. The people spoke very limited English and told me repeatedly that the legs cost a million won for a kilo. I don’t exactly know what they’re really trying to say and declined the sale just in case they really do mean what they said. They didn’t look too happy with me.

Further down the street, I did find an empty restaurant with a menu on the wall. Crabs were on the list but were too expensive so I settled on one of the cheaper items on the menu, something with the word ‘회’ in it. Perfect.

This isn’t exactly what I expected though but the great thing about being Asian and Chinese is that any food’s fair game. This dish contains translucent raw fish on a mountain of cabbage with some sort of spicy and sour cold soup that’s quite unlike anything I’ve had. The waitress says to dump my rice in the bowl and stir it all up. The fish is surprisingly flavorful and the warmth of the rice is in stark contrast to the liquid it’s dunked in. I don’t know if I like it on the whole but I can’t say I hate it either.

All in all, a good deviation from the itinerary.