And now let’s finally get back to South Korea. You may recall we spent five weeks there in February and March of this year. Most of that time was spent in Seoul but we did go down to Busan for a few days at the end of February/beginning of March. I’ve previously put up a compendium post on a number of meals eaten on that short trip. Here now is a report on the last. It’s not just a meal report though. The last thing we did in Busan before heading to the train station to return to Seoul was visit the famous Jagalchi fish market. If you’ve been following my trip reports for a while, you will not be surprised to hear that this was one of my favourite outings in Busan. Yes, I do love fish markets. We spent some time wandering through the market and then a subset of my students joined us for lunch at the market. Here are the details.

If you’ve read my posts on the Noryangjin fish market in Seoul (see here for a look at the market; and here for a report on two meals at the market), these pictures of Jagalchi Market will look familiar. The layout of the interior of the market is very similar as is the general ambience. Live fish and seafood dominate what is sold there and while the market floor is wet, it’s not a particularly aromatic environment. Here too you can buy fish and other seafood to take home and you can buy fish and seafood to have cooked for you in the restaurants on the second floor (or you can just go to one of those restaurants and order seafood without having purchased it yourself on the ground floor).

One way in which it is different from Noryangjin is that there are quite a lot of vendors who set up outside the market proper. Another is its location in the city. Noryangjin is quite out of the way and is sort of its own destination. Jagalchi, on the other hand, is located within walking distance of BIFF Square, on the water, right on the edge of Nampo Port and very close to a famous food alley. In other words, if you’re visiting Busan for a short while, a visit to Jagalchi Market is easy to combine with other things. But, of course, any aficionado of the fish market scene will tell you that the main reason to got to a fish market is that it is a fish market. And Jagalchi is certainly a fine fish market. Indeed, I believe it is the largest fish market in South Korea.

As at Noryangjin, the market is laid out in a very orderly manner (when compared to something like the Sassoon Dock fish market in Bombay). If you wish to buy seafood to have cooked for you at one of the establishments upstairs, most of the vendors have relationships with specific places and will have it sent up there to be cooked as you like. This is what we did. Our group’s guide had a relationship of his own with one of the vendors (who spoke pretty good English) and having agreed on a selection of fish and shellfish and a price, we went up to his affiliated restaurant and sat down.

The space upstairs is quite extensive. Unlike at Noryangjin, it has more of a food hall atmosphere. And, of course, they take full advantage of their location on the water. There are large windows that let in a lot of light and if you are at one of the restaurants by the windows you can have a lovely ocean view as you eat. We were not by the windows but we were happy enough with the view of our food. What did we eat? Raw sea pineapple; abalone, both raw and grilled; grilled scallops; a large platter of white fish hwe (the Korean counterpart of sashimi); grilled mackerel; and finally fried pomfret (I think) which the seafood vendor had thrown into the deal as the customary “service”. Not everybody loved everything (the sea pineapple and abalone were tough sells for a bunch of the students and our kids as well) but the meal as a whole was very good—even if it didn’t end with a fantastic fish bone stew as our first meal at Noryangjin had.

For a look at the market and our meal, click on an image below to launch an excessive slideshow. Scroll down to see what’s coming next.

Should you go to Busan and not visit Jagalchi Market? I think it would be rash. We will almost certainly go back on the next iteration of my program in 2026.

Well, I have four more reports to come from South Korea, all from Seoul. Two of those are of returns to casual places I enjoyed very much on my first solo visit in March 2023 and the other two are of Michelin-starred fine dining meals. I have the ambition to post two of them next week and the remaining two in the last week of June. (Will that actually happen? How could you doubt me?) I also hope to finally put up my report on our dinner in early June at Tenant in Minneapolis; and maybe even one from our current sojourn in California. Let’s see how it goes.