Octopus ink???

Fish market meal

For dinner, we drove out to an island on the Yellow Sea just off the coast of Inchon (west side of the Korean Peninsula). We spent some time watching the sunset (as much as we could see through the yellow dust 'loess' that lingers in the air) on a nice beach and then we ventured over to a fish market. This fish market was very similar to a commercial fish market where vendors and restaurant owners would barter their seafood for the day's meals. We walked past tank after tank of living seafood--octopus, squid, cuttlefish, sea squirts, sea worms, sea cucumbers, flounder, clams, oysters, mussels, scallops--you name it, if you can find it in the Yellow Sea, it was for sale at this market.

Well, instead of purchasing our 'fish' to go--we simply pulled up seats next to the fish tanks at small 'patio' tables equipped with BBQ grills in the center and 'ordered' our meals from the tanks. Ok, so we opted for flounder but our kind and gracious hosts decided to order for us. ;) You know where this is going, don't you?

We started the meal with raw garlic cloves which I quickly grilled in some sesame oil. Ok, that's not too 'different' from our normal meals at home. However, that's about where normal ended for us during this meal. Instantly, clams, oysters and shrimp started appearing on the grills. Then, came a pan of boiling broth into which the fishmongers dropped at least a dozen small 'living' octopi--tentacles writhing all over the place. The octopi wriggled a bit in the boiling water and eventually cooked. One octopus, however, put on a fight and squirted black ink across not only our table but onto and beyond a neighboring table. Seeing that response, we wondered if the other 11 or so octopi were going to respond similarly (sort of like a spark igniting an ammunition cache)--talk about interesting meal conversation.

rnrB, trkr & I have spent lots of time in aquariums lately and there was something odd about seeing 'our friends' get dropped into boiling broth. Thankfully, our dinner companions dove right into the octopi (no pun intended) and they were gone without giving us much time to consider the fate of our 'friends'.