Braised Spicy Angler – A very Spicy Experience
Living in Korea can give you unexpected experiences and even more when it is about food! Braised Spicy Angler gave me a very spicy memory that I want to recommend to everyone.
Being a foreign in Korea, might be difficult when you fully want to enjoy and experience the real culture. As when you are willing to try some different and unique food but do not know what to eat, where to eat or actually “how to eat”. Then you stick to same routines, same kind of food and same places. Sometimes it can be complicated to order food because you do not have a clue of the ingredients or even the taste of the food. Then when you finally get the dish, it turns to be totally different picture of what you had in mind, yeah… it is kind of complex. My advice is… just take the risk, go to any traditional restaurant and get surprised with new Korean dishes.
So in my risky attempt to discover the less popular Korean food, I ended up in a restaurant of seafood and fish. Those with small aquariums where you can actually see what you possibly will eat. I tried what is called in English Braised Spicy Angler (???), or now in my language the most spicy Korean food I have ever tried!. It is basically whole Korean fish (blackmouth angler) seasoned with a lot of hot chili pepper sauce. Besides some soybean sprouts and other vegetables that I really do not know about names. And when I say “whole fish”, I really mean it. It includes even the inside of the fish, so I ate fish’s intestine, lungs and who knows what else for the first time.
Also I had another “first time trying” during this experience. Among the side dishes there was some very small seashell, that you easily find in the beach. I was very curious about it. Koreans taught me the correct way to eat them and awkwardly it was kind of fun experience. I found myself sucking the seashell to extract a very very very tiny piece of mollusk. Unexpectedly salty and tasty! … really funny.
When we were ordering the owner of the restaurant warned us about how spicy the dish is, specially pointing me… she suggested to choose “level two” in a scale of spiciness from one to six. Because apparently as a foreign I could not be ready to endure the taste. That was totally not a level two for me though. At the beginning I thought I could easily resist the spicy and bravely I kept eating. I noticed that even Koreans eating with me were having some trouble enduring it. By the end of the lunch we were having wet noses and a strong hot feeling in our tongues, kind of uncomfortable way of eating but unforgettable moment though. Then I came to know these Koreans were not very familiar with the dish and neither with the spicy!.
Braised Spicy Angler might not be a very popular or known dish in Korea, but I am happy of having the opportunity to try it. I must say, even with all the struggles of eating the hot chili sauce the taste of this dish is amazing and unique. After a while, Koreans ordered Fried Rice (???) made with some of the leftovers of the fish. Believe me, one of the most delicious Fried Rice I have ever tried … amazing!. I had an incredible experience with the Korean cuisine so next time I eat Braised Spicy Angler I will not have any doubt and I will just go for it. You guys too, give it a try too.
Price: W18.000 (for 2) / W23.000 (for 3) / W28.000 (for 4)
