South Korea: Busan – Jagalchi Fish Market

Busan boasts the largest fish market in South Korea. Located on the edge of the Nampo Port, there is a massive multistory building with different floors, mostly wholesale. Street markets radiate from here, offering every imaginable fish and shellfish on earth. The most interesting part is the retail building – basically a collection of aquariums of every possible size with fish and crustaceans and shells, all with simple tables set in front. These are all mini restaurants, all offering more or less the same at the same prices – you pick any fresh fish or seafood live swimming in water tanks and it is cut and sashimied or grilled right in front of you – an absolutely surreal experience. Of course we tried to eat the weirdest possible stuff – like the raw spoon seaworm, or barnacles, or the live octopus (the latter is actually still moving as you eat it and the tentacle suckers attach to your tongue inside your mouth). Yum!