Tigers and Cranes

My correspondent in Jolla-Do, Korea(the Tigers and Crane media empire is vast) has sent back some great pictures from the sea-side town of Masan[마산].

Masan is a port city on the southern tip of Korea, and as such, seafood, and from the looks of it, “Mung-Gae” or “Hoya” or “Sea Squirt” are plentiful.

It is interesting to note that in 1274, Koreans (Kaya? or is it Bekje?) staged an invasion of Japan from this very city, along with a bunch of Mongolians. We know how that all turned out.

Masan, written in Hanja and Kanji as “馬山市” (MaSanShi) is fairly close to the huge city of Busan to the east, and according to our good friend Wiki, is the originating city for “spicy monk fish soup”, which was feautured on Iron Chef. Oh, really? I have to find that episode. I tell you, it’s a good thing they make a soup out of the monkfish, cuz that’s one ugly looking mofo.

Also, it seems that Himeji City (With the greatest feudal era Japanese castle still in existence) in Hyogo Prefecture is its sister city.

Okay, enough Jeopardy trivia. On to some photos!

Here we have a photo of “Masan Fish Market”. Oh, man, you just know that big fish on the sign means good eats are lurking within.

Clams and bivalves of all size and shapes. And for that authentic flavor, the flooded ground. This is heaven for those who seek fresh seafood.

More clams and… what are those long-ish tied up thingies? Sea cigars? They might be some type of mussels. And on the top right corner, what appears to be disgusting looking sea-sausage… or sea worms. Cooool.

Ah, sea squirt. Don’t they look delicioux?

Some fresh conch. These things have indescribable taste. Possibly my favorite drinking snack.

Octopus, mung-gae, sea cucumber, sea worm(?) and others sashimi.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 4:12 pm and is filed under food, korea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.