We headed for the city of Yeosu on the south coast of Korea, knowing that we would have to take a ferry over to the island where we are staying:
We hadn’t fully thought through the implications of having to leave the island each time we wanted to go shopping or to seek out a choice of restaurants, so we were a bit stumped when we found out how quiet and lowkey the place was:
But ever the intrepid travellers, we looked up restaurants near me on the Korean equivalent of Google Maps and found a place which served raw fish (no thanks) and shabu shabu – explanation to follow. There wasn’t much choice as the other couple of restaurants served the same thing.
As we arrived at 7.00, the last party were leaving, so that we had the entire restaurant to ourselves, along with the residue of the previous group:
The menu was somewhat unclear:
Fortunately, for the first time outside Seoul, the woman serving in the restaurant (who owned it, I suspect) spoke perfect English. She turned out to have been a teacher of English some long time ago – we’re not sure why she ended up running somewhere like this. She was equally as puzzled as to how we came to be eating in her restaurant!
She double-checked that we knew what we were in for since they only served eel shabu shabu and we said we were happy to go ahead.
So – first, a pot of hot stock with vegetables was set on a hot plate to come to the boil:
Then a dozen side dishes arrived ranging from the familiar to the incomprehensible:
Our charming hostess came and explained what to do with the eel: you drop a piece in the boiling liquid for a few moments until it’s cooked (presumably when it’s curled on itself).
Then you can eat it one of three ways: first, just dipped in soy sauce.
Second, wrapped in one of those leaves with a dab of chilli sauce and rolled up -here’s Sue demonstrating how to do it:
Third, the most popular way apparently, you take a piece of raw onion, then the cooked eel, then a dab of chilli sauce and then some things that were not chives or spring onions but definitely of the onion family and eat:
We left the restaurant without getting rice and sticking it in the left-over stock which is the tradition – we were far too full of eel!
The view across the harbour was splendid but we were glad not to have to get the ferry but to walk back to our oddly quiet hotel and enjoy the briny night air:
Loved the apartment, looked fantastic! We were a bit worried Sue was hiding in the refreshment cupboard.
Eel Pie Island. Twinned with Twickenham?
Glad you’re having a good time x.
Reeeely different!
You seem to be managing the unidentifiable food items better than me!
You two are braver than I! (I quailed at the raw snake hot pot in China years ago – they were small, but wriggling). I wouldn’t be able to get the live eel image out of my head. Well done!