No-no's

Last time I went to Namdaemun, I saw these street food stands with those plastic chairs and tables under a tarp just like in the dramas! So, we went there to find it but we didn't find any. I guess they're not open on Sundays. We ended up eating something random at this open stand.
I just pointed to a couple skewers and some fish cakes in the broth.
Yea... the skewers looked like chicken but they ended up being gizzards of some sort. I don't mind gizzards, but I really don't recommend this haha.. I was your guinea pig.
Disappointed, we walked over to Myeong Dong..
But not before buying some seaweed chocolate ^^ It's pretty decent tasting! There's only a hint of the seaweed flavour. I also tried kimchi chocolate haha.. oh what a mistake!
He didn't know how to use macro...This lady was selling puppies! She wouldn't let me take anymore pictures after this one... couldn't get a close-up, but they were supercute!
I've been having quite a few dreams about being in Korea recently -- I'm still in a daze that I'm back in Vancouver. Sometimes, I find myself thinking "what do I feel like doing tomorrow? A lazy day lying around the sauna, eating marinated hard boiled eggs and watching StarKing at The Dragon Hill Spa would be great...." and then I remember it's not really possible... darn.

"That's Not Nice."

One of my friends from the Korea University exchange program posted this link: 8 Ways to Know You're Home for Awhile. I can definitely relate to #5 and somewhat for #8.

I really miss my tuna kimbap with purple rice near KU!
They also sell this snake-like edible thing there. You can also find it in street vendors.
Looks like a sausage...
So on my last day, I tried it. My friend told me what it was before and said that it's pretty tasty when you eat it with dukkbokki (left).
It's apparently intestine! Pork intestine I believe? It looks as though it's made out of a bunch of clear noodles inside. Interesting... it's steamed/boiled right next to some blood and heart, I was told.

It really doesn't taste like much to me. It wasn't disgusting, but it's not something I would buy again haha.

Busan: Jagalchi Market

It smells fishy...

One afternoon, M and I had lunch at the Jagalchi Market (자갈치시장). It's a famous landmark of Busan where ajummas (40+ married Korean women) sell all sorts of fish and seafood caught that morning. Once we stepped out of the taxi, we could smell the fish and salt water.
Lots of different types of seafood on display~It's Korea's biggest seafood market.Located right next to the port where all the seafood comes from.Ew... on the groundBaby shark for sale?
Undercover areaThey had some strange creatures... I have no idea what this is... looks like a fat frog leg sticking out there hah
Watching their women work kk.I read that flatfish sashimi was delicious so, after using my cell phone's e-dictionary, I went searching for "kajami", pointing to every flat fish and asking the ajumma if it was "kajami". Quite a few sold it - I've never bought fish other than salmon before so I didn't really know how this would work or how much a fish should cost. Once I found it, I pointed to one and asked how much it was. The ajumma said "o chon" (5,000 won). So I say okay... and then she starts packing up the whole pile!! Shocked, I quickly clarified with her that I was only going to pay "5 chon" and she happily reassured me.... what was I going to do with all that fish?! I mean, I love fish but there had got to be over 10 in that bag!
So we brought it to a store to have it sliced up. You can do that in Korea - just go to a store with fish in hand, and they will slice it up for you as sashimi or whatnot. Silly me - I had plum forgotten that sashimi needed to be totally fresh - like the fish had to still be alive and swimming 5 minutes before it reached a platter! So the shops refused to serve it as sashimi, saying it would make me sick so I had all the fish grilled on some 2nd floor.
kk... I love fish but it was a LOT! This was part of our 1st batch... had 3 more batches come afterward. It was sooo delish though~~ I got my fish fix!
You can find these dried seafood snack stands in busy places in Seoul, too.
Rats... I was quite excited to try live octopus on this trip down to Busan but I didn't have anyone to share the dish with. Live octopus is considered a delicacy. There's a Korean movie called Old Boy where one of the character orders a live octopus and eats it... whole... it's really quite amazing -- watch HERE. Of course, eating it isn't as extreme as in the movie. The servers cut the baby octopus up so the tentacles are still squirming around on the plate. You pick it up with your chopsticks, dip it lightly in soy sauce (there may be some other sauces, too), and eat! Make sure you chew, though! There have been several deaths each year as a result of not chewing enough and choking. Here's a video on the "Art of eating SanNakji"!