Korea 2011: Amsa Market

When we arrived in Amsa where Dani stays, we dropped off my luggage, and went for a stroll around the neighbourhood.  Literally half a block away from where Dani lives in an Officetel, is the Amsa market.  Here are some pictures that I took in the market:

Squid

Mussel

Skate

Peaches

Any one of the above could have been supper.  The market is enormous.  It sells a lot of seafood, rice cakes, fruit, veggies, street snacks, clothing, stationery.  Obviously when one takes photographs, one looks for the eye-catching.  What I learnt very quickly is that fruit and vegetables are very, very expensive.  We paid about R24 for a very large pear.  And about the same for three peaches.  Sweet potatoes, rice, some squashes, bean sprouts and spring onions are common and less expensive.  Other things, like medium sized water melons, for example, can cost more than R60.

Seafood is very common.  There is a lot of dried shrimp, squid and seaweed.  What is most interesting is that there are tanks of live eels, fish, crabs, etc. which one can order at which point, presumably, the item chosen is killed and prepared for eating.  I say presumably, because we didn't choose to do this.  We ate out a lot.  Dani wanted to share with me the enormous variations in Korean foods and meal etiquette.

My first evening in Seoul entailed Iced Noodles and Gimbap.  We ordered one helping of each and shared them.  Every meal in Korea comes with 'sides' included in the price.  These 'sides' are invariably kimchi in some form and pickled daikon radishes.  There are often more than two side dishes.  For reasons that I can't quite remember, I do not have photographs of my first meal in Korea.  Perhaps I had left my camera in Dani's apartment.  They were, however, both very yummy and reasonably priced.  The Iced noodles literally come in a bowl of melting ice chips and flavoured broth with a smattering of vegetables.  The noodles can be 'normal' ribbon noodles or buckwheat or sesame noodles.  There are no doubt other varieties that I did not see or experience.  The Gimbap is more or less a very large sushi shaped like a long bread roll and covered with seaweed.  The only difference is that the fish, or protein content is cooked.  I can understand why Dani eats out a fair amount.  There are a myriad of dishes available which are relatively inexpensive and very easy to share.