Unconventional umami of seafoods

 

We found out a decent seafood restaurant called “Hoepo” nearby Four Seasons Hotel Seoul and dined there both in the morning and at night. Interestingly, the name is very similar to one of my most favorite seafood restaurant in Bucheon. Although the space inside didn’t seem to be big enough, it was cozy and there were many customers already there, only one table was left unoccupied when we got there. This place provided dishes that were not available in other average seafood eateries. They provided Korean east coast style foods, raw Spanish mackerel, and steamed roe of Spanish mackerel with tofu etc. The menu changes from time to time depending on the availability of materials and season.

In the morning, we had flounder seaweed soup, which is not conventional way to cook seaweed soup in Seoul and Gyeonggi area. Mostly, in Seoul, beef is common ingredient used in seaweed soup. I think the addition of fish or oyster is popular way to cook seaweed soup in southern part of Korea. I remember I ate oyster-seaweed soup in Geojae island long time ago. Leo ordered his favorite, pollack roe soup, which also has a lot of milt in it. The recipe of this soup was spread to Japan during 36-years-long colonial era and nowadays it is also enjoyed there too.

At night, we ate byeongeo or silver pomfret as a sekosi dish and boiled scallop and squid. Byeongeo could be called butter fish, but doing so may cause confusion as many different fishes were called butter fish in North America. Therefore, I think it is good to call this fish silver pomfret rather than butter fish in English. You may think this fish look like piranha and similar tropical pet species, and it was my impression too. Summer is the right time to eat this fish. In June every year, silver pomfret festival is held in Shinan county and many foodies visit there. These days, between Korea and Chinese fishermen, there is fierce competition to catch this fish in the west sea and decrease of catch is a serious issue. The decrease of catch inevitably push the price of the fish upward and restaurants/retailers have difficult time to set reasonable price for customers. This summer, you must spend at least 30~50 $ to have seafood made with silver pomfret. I imagine that sooner or later, we will be forced to import this fish because silver pomfret is still abundant in the Indian ocean.

Sekosi is an unconventional way to make sashimi and a most popular way to eat silver pomfret and conger eel (Anago in Japanese). Unlike the usual sashimi recipe of completely removing bones, sekosi is made by retaining bones and flesh. The word stems from a Japanese word. Originally, it was mainly eaten in Gyeongsang-do, such as Busan and Pohang, but these days, it has spread to other regions. Since bones are eaten with flesh, fish with strong and rigid spines are not used for sekosi. With vegetables, in many areas, we have salad style sekosi with sweet and sour seasoning called chojang, which is mixture of red chili source and vinegar. if you eat it with sesame oil or chojang, the savory taste of the bones becomes more obvious with the chewy texture. However, for those who seek soft texture, such as flounder, rock fish, and sea bream sashimi, or who are used to this taste, the bone fragments in the fish could not be enjoyable at all. Silver pomfret sekosi is palatable but I think the best fish for sekosi is conger eel. Next time, I hope I can find out the right place to have anago (conger eel sekosi).