Abalone, the Sea Treasure

For ages in history, the females at Jeju Island are responsible to earn $$$ for the families by using their swimming and diving skills that have enable them to breathe for a long time in the sea. This has made abalone a great earning for the island because the sea creature is so expensive due to the hard work that is needed to obtain this seafood from deep underneath the sea.

We've no clue which shop that we'll be heading to, but here we're based on the recommendation from Su Yee. The menu is quite special whereby the Origin of Country for each dish is listed for reference. We're served with different appetizers but I don't really like any of it. I'm waiting for the main courses...

We've taken the jeonbok juk鲍鱼粥 from Domestic and obunjagi dolsotbap九孔鲍鱼石锅饭 from Jeju. I like the nice aroma of the light greenish rice porridge and I've then realized that it's the sesame oil that has been used to fry the thinly sliced abalone that is then being cooked together with the rice that has been soaked in the water. I like the thick broth of the porridge and I've enjoyed biting the rice granules except that it's too lightly salted. The famous rice dish is cooked with blue abalone in a stone pot and it's to be then seasoned with margarine and soy sauce. The margarine has given a nice aroma to the rice but I dare not to put in the special sauce as it contains the awful smell of the fermented bean-curd paste. The rice tastes not bad but it's nothing special to be amazed of.

We've also decided to share ttukbaegi沙锅 from Domestic that is a soy paste seafood soup with abalone, prawn and Manila clam that comes in a earthenware pot. I like the soup for its spiciness and also the sweetness of the fresh seafood but I don't really like the seafood especially the abalone that by itself is tasteless. Our final dish is the jeyuk bokkeum辣炒猪肉 from Jeju that is a pan-fried dish of pork in hot and spicy sauce with vegetables. The dish is so spicy but it's so appetizing to go with the rice. The thinly sliced meat is tender but it's sinful that 2/3 of the layers are only fat.

Ending our dinner, we've given a bowl of "porridge water"粥水 or the water that has been soaking with the rice that is burnt in the pot. It's claimed that the water is good to reduce the heat inside the body. Neither 100% satisfaction nor 100% disappointment, but we're not really amazed by the abalone meal at Jeju Island.