Ori gogi

Never knew Koreans are also big into duck meat. FYI "gogi" means meat and "ori" means duck. Do not mistaken it with "Dukgogi" which actually means chicken meat!

SO far ahve tried 2 different types of duck dishes :

1) Smoke Origogi - smoke duck meat then bbq into delicious chunks of meat! There is a popular duck restaurant in Okpo near the jetty which is always packed.

2) Ori soup (beaksuk) - whole duck in a pot double boiled into duck soup witht he meat falling off the bones! The restaurant I visited is a secluded 100 year old house refurbished into a restaurant, sipping duck soup on a traditional Korea house, that is what I call a good one!

I am a big fan of duck dishes and really love these 2 dishes!

Fish soup... EXCELLENT

I love fish soup. In Malaysia you can find fish head noodles at every hawker shop, nowadays even elevated to 5 star hotels and malls.

In Sweden I had the chance to try out the local fish soup which was creamy and yummy.

Here in Korea they have this ! They call it Dae gu Tang with Dae gu refering to the type of fish (cod) they use and Tang refers to soup.

The fish is fresh and chunky in the soup. Soup is clear broth and comes with chilies adn bean paste sides where u can add into the soup to make it spicy.

Excellent for Sunday morning after a heavy night out! This restaurant I found is located in front of Hyundae beach jetty. You will be queing up for more than 15 minutes if you are there later than 9am.

Hang Over Soup

This dish is called the Hae Jang Guk aka Hangover Soup. Basically tells you what most locals are doing the night before.

We tried to relate the soup as it is like a stewed pork ribs in hot pepper soup with lots of vegetables, fresh and dried. The ribs must be boiled overnight and basically falling off the bones, YUMMY...

Why not call the Sogolgi Tang instead we ask? Sogolgi means pork and tang means soup. We were enlightened further that this Hangover soup comes in various types and uses different type of meat, it can be fish, beef, chicken etc.

We found a small mum and pop shop near our job site in Ulsan which only serve this dish, yummy pork ribs Hae Jang guk which even Westerners enjoys.

The soup is not too spicy but rich as it was boiled with the ribs overnight. The vegetables in the soup compliments the meat tastefully. You can peel the meat off the ribs with chopsticks and put in on top of the rice or some choose to pour the rice into the soup and take it like a porridge dish. Both ways are a good way to enjoy the dish.

We have tried other Hae Jang Guk restaurants near Hyundae Beach  but the taste are just different and does not have the rich texture in the soup. So far this joint in Ulsan is the best.

Hae Jang Guk in Ulsan in picture is KRW7,000 but the ones in Hyundae is KRW4,000, tells you something about the quality I guess.

Ribs at Sharkey's

I stay in this building in Busan, facing Hyuandae Beach, the famous beach in Busan.

and just realised there is this awesome joint tuck away in a corner on the second floor of the condo. I don't even need to put on a coat to get a bite from this joint!

Last Friday they have this excellent guitarist with his girlfriend on the violin playing excellent numbers. The guy is insanely good with the guitar!

Yesterday my mate and I went downstairs again for a bite, end up choosing this...

It was juicy! I do not possess the many descriptive words for culinary excellence but I can tell you the ribs is to die for!

Prelude

Why 1 year in Busan? Well that's the plan now. If plan changes I will change the title of this blog to More than 1 year in Busan haha.

Under the influence of K Pop and Gangnam style sensation, one can't help himself but have high hopes for being here, the second largest city in South Korea.

Can you imagine all this are condos and hotels? None of them are office blocks.

Culture, food, drinks and fun, this is what Busan is about.