Soraepogu Fish Market: The Best Prawns near Seoul

Autumn is the prawn season in Korea (hurray!) So as seafood fans we headed off to the Sorae Port Fish Market in Incheon which is famous at this time of year for its prawns.

The market is not as big as Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul, but the atmosphere is completely different. The Fish Market is walking distance from Soraepogu station and takes a good hour to get to from central Seoul.

The indoor market had some of the largest king crab I have ever seen and the lobster was pretty impressive too. But since there were only two of us we couldn’t order everything we wanted! Large boxes of prawns looked good but we just couldn’t carry that much home on the train!

The large indoor section of the market is similar to Noryangjin but it has outdoor seating to accommodate the groups of (what seems to be mainly) middle-aged ladies and gentlemen who come to enjoy some fresh seafood.

The stars of this season – prawns – can be steamed in their shells with salt or deep fried whole.

We had lunch on the second floor of a shikdang diner at the entrance to the outdoor market. Here we could sit and watch the world go by below. The Soraepogu Festival is held around the end of September. But judging by the crowds here even on a regular weekend, I bet the festival is pretty hectic!

The store holders stand slicing grilled octopus hour after hour as they try to keep up with the demand from the steady stream of customers flowing by.

The smell of frying savoury pancakes and fish cooking on outside grills wafted up towards us. Frustrated fishermen hurried by trying to deliver their seafood (still alive and leaping around in the buckets on the back of their bikes) and honking their horns through the crowds.

We stayed for a couple of hours watching the constant lines of fellow seafood lovers who stop to study the variety of live, dried, raw, grilled, deep fried, and marinated seafood on offer.

You can have live prawns steamed at the table. (the prawns are live when they are cooked). They taste slightly sweet. The salt adds seasoning so they don’t need any kind of dip. And the peel is so fine that it can also be eaten – if you want to eat it, that is.

There are also raw fish sets with side dishes that include eda mame beans, deep fried prawns and squid, raw sea pineapple, and scallops. It wasn’t the cheapest seafood we’ve ever eaten but I guess you pay for the freshness of the seafood and the atmosphere of the market. I felt like I was on holiday – just for the day – away from Seoul!