Friday, March 29, 2024
FOOD&DRINK

Blowfish in Korea 복어

blow fish

So I’ve now had my first experience of blowfish (fugu/bogeo). Yes, blowfish is famous for being able to poison you to death, but since this well-known restaurant in Insadong in Seoul has a 60 year history (with presumably no mishaps) I was confident we would be OK…

During the week, the place is packed with businessmen, but on Saturdays it’s quieter and there’s no need to book. There are individual rooms here for two or four people. In our room there were two tables but we had the room to ourselves.

 A mix of Japanese and Korean flavours 

The dishes are a blend of Japanese and Korean flavours and serving styles – such as Japanese sweet citrus soy and wasabi dip with the Korean herb minari.

We ordered the 60,000 won per head set meal which includes dishes with blowfish cooked in various ways.

So what does raw blowfish taste like? 

Well, Mr Kim would say it doesn’t taste of anything.

I suppose when you’re eating a fish that you know could be poisonous enough to kill you, you expect it to taste a bit more LETHAL. But no, it’s very understated. Let’s call it delicate and subtle! And the texture is more chewy than other sashimi. It’s not oily or ‘fishy’ tasting at all.

The blowfish sashimi was served very thinly sliced with a hillock of blowfish skin and slices of green minari with cress in the centre. (all decorated with a dried blowfish tail!)

And what are you supposed to do with all the minari in the middle of the plate?

Another good question. You’re supposed to roll up a slice of fish (with your chopsticks) around a piece of the minari. Then dip all this in the sweet soy sauce and eat it.

But minari has a strong flavour – it’s kind of a cross between coriander and celery leaves. So I found the minari a bit overpowering. I preferred to just eat the fish with wasabi and soy sauce and the vegetables separately.

The blowfish skin salad was served with fish roe, watercress, minari, onion, and grated radish with a Japanese-style sweet citrus soy sauce dressing (ponzu). And this dish was designed to be mixed up with chopsticks (like bibimbap).

Blowfish skin is quite chewy and rough so it comes very thinly sliced. The skin doesn’t have much flavour but mixed with the savoury/sweet dressing, the hot watercress, the sweet, tangy onion, and the aromatic minari, this dish was a light and tasty appetiser. It was served with grated mountain potato on the side. The set also included a plate of tuna, scallop, and halibut sashimi. And we washed it all down with a hot Japanese sake – with dried blowfish tail. 

My favourite part of the meal was the blowfish tempura.

The deep fried blowfish was deliciously juicy in the light and crispy batter. Perfect with the grated radish in light soy sauce and vinegar dip. My only complaint was that it was served before the sashimi – I would have preferred to have it after. (After living in Japan I’m just used to raw dishes begin served first.)

Finally we had the blowfish hot pot cooked with radish and more minari. (There was a heck of a lot of minari in this meal.) The soup was mild unlike the spicy soup usually served at sashimi restaurants. Still good though.

The hot pot was served with savoury rice porridge which was filling and satisfying. A slice of apple on a cocktail stick was served for dessert. It was an interesting experience and now I can say I’ve had raw blowfish and survived, but next time I’ll be happy just with a plate of blowfish tempura!

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Directions

The restaurant is called 종로삼대복집

address: 종로구 안국동 132 (Jongno Anguk-dong 132)

tel: 02 715 7679

Anguk subway (line 3) exit 2. Cross over the road and walk straight. Turn left down the small road in front of the grounds of the 재판소 law courts. (D marks the spot)

5 thoughts on “Blowfish in Korea 복어

  • may I know where is this restaurant located ? possible to reach this restaurant by subway ?

    Reply
  • Yes, Anguk Station (line 3) exit 2. I’ve added the directions and map to the post. Hope this helps.

    Reply
  • How much does it cost for a full course of blowfish? I really wanna try it :)!!!

    Reply
  • They have a range of prices. But we chose one of the cheaper options which was 60,000 won per person.

    Reply
  • This looks like an exciting dish to try. I am planning a trip there in a few weeks and I will definitely make this a stop

    Reply

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