The winter sea is cold, but the table is hot. The winter gourmet food you encounter along the East Sea and South Sea has different expressions in each region. Yeongdeok is red, Sokcho is deep, and Tongyeong is soft. A winter gastronomic trip connecting three cities is ultimately about tasting the seasons. The commonality of winter gastronomic travel is clear. There are no trends, only seasons. Eating by the sea in winter is ultimately a waste of time. Enjoying food is making memories. Let’s go on a gastronomic journey with enchanting flavors this winter.
△ Feel the power of Sokcho and Gangwon-do’s gourmet cuisine.
Sokcho Tourism Market, where various flavors coexist_ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
Sokcho in winter is quiet. When the sound of summer waves and the footsteps of tourists leave, the deeper taste of the sea remains. The harsher the cold wind, the hotter the table in Sokcho becomes. Winter is the season when this city becomes the most ‘delicious’.
The starting point for winter Sokcho cuisine is the port. Mulgomtang (mulmegitang) served at restaurants near Daepo Port and Dongmyeong Port is an honest taste of the winter sea. Despite its mushy appearance, the soup is light and deep. The combination of radish, bean sprouts, and peppers instantly relieves your aching body.
If you want a slightly more intense taste, there is Dochi Altang. The savory flavor and spicy soup from Dochi eggs are the most reliable source of warmth on a winter night in Sokcho. These foods are not ‘for tourists’. It was the meal table for those who worked at sea, so it is more reliable.
Sokcho Abai Sundae _ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
Sokcho Market’s specialty, Sokcho Chicken Gangjeong_ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
Sokcho Jungang Market is more crowded in winter. This is because hot smells become more vivid in cold air. The representative menu is definitely Sokcho Abai Sundae. The sundae filled with vegetables and blood sausage instead of glutinous rice is light, and when combined with the sour seasoned pollack, the balance of taste is complete.
In the market alleys, squid sundae, seed hotteok, and flounder sikhae create the rhythm of winter gourmet food. The moment when you stop for a moment in front of a food stall is the key scene of your trip to Sokcho.
Sokcho Mulhoe The generous raw fish and ingredients are excellent_ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
Sokcho in winter is not just a city by the sea. If you look towards the foot of Seoraksan Mountain, dried pollack hangover soup and grilled dried pollack await you. Dried pollack, which repeatedly freezes and thaws in the winter wind, is not complete unless it is this season. The soup is clear and the flavor is deep.
Wild vegetable bibimbap is also perfect for winter. The lightness created by vegetables from the mountains rather than from the refrigerator gives winter travelers a sense of fullness without being excessive.
Sokcho’s nights are quiet, but the drinks scene is plentiful. Natural raw fish made from winter fish from the East Coast and a glass of local soju or makgeolli are enough. It is a place where freshness precedes flashiness, and experience precedes explanation. Drinking alcohol in front of the winter sea does not get you drunk quickly. Instead, it remains in my memory for a long time.
The charm of a winter gourmet trip to Sokcho can be summed up in one word: ‘season.’ Not a taste for tourists, but foods that have survived the season. The colder the sea, the hotter the soup, and the more alive the market.
Winter in Sokcho is quiet. Instead, we talk a lot at the dinner table. Traveling to Sokcho in this season means eating the sea and wasting time.
△ Yeongdeok snow crab, emblem of the winter sea
Symbol of Yeongdeok Snow Crab _ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
When winter comes, Yeongdeok is silent. Instead, put everything on the table. Ingredients that have withstood the cold waves of the East Sea, and a taste that is only allowed in this season. Yeongdeok’s winter cuisine begins with ‘snow crab’ and ends with ‘soup’.
Yeongdeok snow crab is at the center of Yeongdeok’s winter cuisine. From November to May, midwinter is the time when you gain the most weight. When you open the red shell, the white flesh quietly reveals itself. The identity of Yeongdeok snow crab is its unexaggerated sweetness and the scent of the sea that spreads as you chew it.
Generous steamed snow crab set _ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
When it comes to steaming crabs, the method of steaming is not everything. The final scene of mixing rice into crab shells is one course. No need for fancy sauce. A pinch of salt is enough.
After eating crab, soup is always served. Snow crab stew is a winter hangover made by boiling leftover legs. The radish, green onion, and pepper alone give it a deep flavor.
A more everyday choice is red crab ramen. This menu, found at food stalls or small restaurants near the port, is the temperature of a winter night in Yeongdeok. It is trustworthy as it is a menu that locals visit before tourists.
Ganggu Port and Chuksan Port are the scene of Yeongdeok’s gourmet cuisine. On a winter morning, after the auction ends, the fish that went straight to the restaurant are brought to the table. Menus such as braised sea bream, sea bream stew, and cod soup are not flashy, but they accurately reflect the season.
In particular, sandfish is a fish allowed only in winter. A bowl of sea bream stew full of roe makes you feel like you’re swallowing time in the sea.
Snow crab _ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
Yeongdeok is a sea city, but the dining table is simple. Side dishes such as flounder, seasoned seaweed, and seaweed soup that can be found at Baekban restaurants around the port are another face of the Yeongdeok table. Unpretentious taste, composition that you will never get tired of repeating. This is the most necessary element for winter travelers.
The nights in Yeongdeok are quiet. Instead, the drinking party is long. After eating snow crab, enjoying a glass of makgeolli or soju near the port is a daily routine in Yeongdeok in the winter. The colder the sea breeze, the slower the alcohol empties.
Yeongdeok’s winter cuisine is most faithful to the word ‘season.’ There is snow crab, there is soup, and there is port. There are no flashy gastronomic trends, but instead, there are foods that do not betray the seasons.
I don’t ask about the glory of winter. It’s just a table setting. And on top of that lies the real taste of the winter sea.
△ Tongyeong, a city remembered for its taste, from Sirakguk to Dachi
Tongyeong Central Traditional Market in Gangguan, where you can eat Tongyeong’s raw fish _ Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
If you want to satisfy your morning hunger in Tongyeong, Sirak-guk (sirak-guk) is the perfect option. Those who appear early in the morning with white breath eat sirak soup to fill their hearts hungrier than their stomachs.
.In Seoho Market, known as the early morning market of Tongyeong, there are several stores selling sirak soup. Among them, cauldron sirak soup made with white fish and the original sirak soup made with eel soup are widely known. The scenery of Sirak Gukjip is as unique as the food. A variety of side dishes are placed in the middle of the table, including red pepper leaves, kimchi, mixed baguette, and radish greens. The idea is to eat small portions of food. Sirak soup is a food that makes you feel the warmth of people. It is a friendly food that I share with strangers who do not know the side dish in front of me.
Tongyeong’s finest food, Chungmu Gimbap_Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
Among the market foods in Tongyeong, petegi porridge cannot be left out. In fact, Petegi Porridge is a local food eaten by the common people to get over the barley pass. In the winter, sweet potatoes were dried and boiled into porridge when spring hunger arrived. In the Gyeongsang-do region, it was called ‘Ptetegi’ because of the way sweet potatoes twisted as the moisture evaporated during the drying process. Boil the dried sweet potatoes, add red beans, kidney beans, and glutinous rice powder, then boil and season with sugar and salt. People in Tongyeong call Petegi Porridge a taste that brings back memories.
The most unique food in Tongyeong is Ujja. Udon and Jjajang served in one bowl. The taste is different from Chinese food. It has a unique taste that is similar to black bean noodles or udon.
Chungmu gimbap is a taste of Tongyeong that cannot be missed. Chungmu kimbap, also known as grandmother kimbap or skewer kimbap, was made by wrapping the kimbap and handing it to my husband as he often went out to work at sea in the early morning and skipping meals. It is said that the beginning of Chungmu Gimbap was made by wrapping rice around cut seaweed and making it small, and as a side dish, octopus, mussels, clams, and squid, which are commonly caught in Tongyeong, were seasoned in a twisted manner without moisture and added with fermented radish kimchi. There are several Chungmu Gimbap restaurants around Tongyeong Port.
Dachi, home to the essence of Tongyeong food_Provided by Korea Tourism Organization
However, all of these foods do not reach the level of Tongyeong’s Dajji.
Poet Kang Je-yoon, an island expert, says, “Dachi is the alpha and omega of Tongyeong seafood cuisine.” This is because it is a seafood buffet where you can enjoy the taste of Tongyeong all at once. At Dajjijip in Tongyeong, seasonal raw fish and seafood are available every season. It comes with an abundance of fresh, flavorful, moist, and vibrant food ingredients. This is a place that completely breaks the prejudice that Gyeongsang-do food is not delicious. However, at Dachi Restaurant, you do not have the freedom to choose the food you want to eat. You must eat whatever your master gives you. The menu changes depending on the ingredients purchased from the market each day, so there is no cure if you become addicted to Dachi.
It is assumed that Tongyeong’s ‘dachi’ may have come from ‘tachinomi (たちのみ),’ which means a Japanese tavern where you drink while standing. People in Tongyeong sometimes interpret it as saying that all seafood is ‘all there.’
People in Tongyeong generally want a variety of seafood snacks, but this is because it is a neighborhood full of gourmets who do not eat a lot of snacks but rather eat small amounts of delicious snacks. Like the makgeolli alley in Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, Dajji is a bar culture that only charges for drinks and does not charge for snacks. Originally, at Dachi Restaurant, the snacks were continuously upgraded for each bottle of alcohol ordered, but the calculations were not right, so these days, they charge about 30,000 won per person. If you order the basics, 3 bottles of soju and 5 bottles of beer will be served in a bucket.
If you have a good drink with good seafood, is there anything better than water fish stew as hangover food the next day? Water catfish are moray eels. On the East Coast, it is also called water bear and is the king of hangover food. It is a mysterious fish that is refreshing and light and quickly heals a sore stomach. Water catfish is especially delicious in winter. This is because they gain weight for spawning. If you add radish and boil it in Jiritang, it is sweet and refreshing even without adding onions or other vegetables.
/Reporter Choi Byeong-il skycbi@kbmaeil.com
