So I will start with the seafood.........
King Crab
I had never tried King Crab before so was pretty excited about this. We stopped off in Ilsan (a city just North of Seoul) on our way back from the Imjin river and found a place that only sells crab. Its a pretty usual thing in Korea for the resturant to specialise in a particular type of food - so the question asked is often "what do you want to eat?" rather than "which restaurant do you want to go to?".
Anyway, so there is a guy at the front of the place who is the "tank man". He helps you choose one of the huge crabs swimming around in the big fish tank there. Well I say swimming. Wriggling would be a more accurate description since the poor things hardly have any space to move.
He then fishes it out and gives it to the restuarant who will cook it up for you. We sat down and were served an assortment of seafood related side dishes and within 10 minutes we had our freshly steamed crab in front of us cut up into sections. For anyone who has seen the Lost Boys, I was reminded of Michael's Texas Chainsaw Massacre comment when he opens the door to his grandfather's taxidermny workshop. Just check out the picture and you'll see what I mean!
Ok so it doesn't look pretty. But it was delicious. They give you a pair of scissors to cut open the shell and the meat comes out in big soft, white, tender chunks rather than the flakey meat of smaller species. You can dip in the hot sauce of course, although I prefer mine pure. Eaten with plum wine is great as it compliments the flavour.
I will try anything once, so I when the waitress took the crab away and brought it back with the brains mixed up with fried rice, I gave it a go. Not for me. Too bitter and worse is the knowledge of what it is. I think a few more attempts and I might get over the psychological barrier (as an ex-vegetarian of 11 years I now eat pigs trotters (Chokbal)without too much trouble which is an achievement!)
Yum, just thinking about it is making me hungry. hmm what do I have in the cupboard? Ah. baked beans. oh well.
