Korean Eating: A Fishy Feast Called Haemultang

As I’ve mentioned before, living on a peninsula has given me the opportunity to try shellfish everything, fish there aren’t English names for aside from the biological terms, and everything in between. Haemultang (해물탕), or a Korean fish stew is a dish that puts all of them together into one deliciously spicy fishy stew.

Haemultang is a fish stew you’ll often find on the coasts of Korea. If you’re headed down to Busan, Jeju Island, or some other coastal region and need a spicy warm-up, definitely seek out some seafood soup like haemultang.

(This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a certain percentage of a sale if you purchase after clicking at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.)

What is in haemultang?

There’s something for everyone in here with prawns, squid, clams, crab, octopus, scallops, fish, and oysters in a spicy with a hint of sweet red pepper paste broth. If you don’t fancy an octopus tentacle, grab the prawns. If you don’t want the clams, go for the fish. The stew also comes with vegetables, maybe some bean sprouts, mushrooms, peppers and onions as well as tofu.

The dish can differ in ingredients from place to place and season to season depending on what is fresh and in stock, but expect it to be overflowing with as many seafood delights as you can imagine in one hot pot in the center of the table surrounded by vegetable side dishes and soju bottles.

If you don’t bring a friend that knows the intricacies of cutting up the octopus with scissors or removing the seafood from the shells, don’t be afraid to wave over the helpful servers to slice and dice for you. They’re usually quite attentive as it is and will pay close attention to make sure you know when exactly to start eating and will help prepare everything so you can consume it even easier.

Once you get through all of the seafood goodness that is overflowing at the beginning, then you have a delicious spicy broth that you add some noodles to that absorb the essence of that seafood that you loved just moments before.

Did you like this post? Pin IT!