Gwamegi: Korea’s Half-Dried Winter Fish and How To Eat It

Last Updated on April 24, 2026

Interested in Korean food? Want to try a Korean delicacy that a lot of people have never tried before? Wait until winter, and this is the Korean dish you need to check out. Gwamegi (과메기), or Pacific herring, is a fishy Korean treat that is something that I always look forward to when the temperatures get cool. If you like seafood, then you’ll want to find this Korean dish this winter in Korea. Just make sure you’re headed to the southern coasts to try it because that’s where it’s the best.

Here’s what to know about gwamegi, the Korean winter delicacy:

• What Is Gwamegi?
• How Is Gwamegi Made?
• What Does Gwamegi Taste Like?
• How To Eat Gwamegi
• Where To Eat Gwamegi

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What Is Gwamegi?

Gwamegi is half-dried Pacific herring or Pacific saury, a winter-only seasonal food you’ll notice appearing on tables and restaurant menus from around mid-November and disappearing again by February. It’s found most commonly in regions where large hauls of fish are harvested: Pohang, Uljin, and Yeongdeok along Korea’s east coast. Guryongpo Harbor in Pohang is specifically regarded as the most famous place in Korea to eat it.

The name comes from the older term gwanmogeo, which translates roughly to “dried herring hung by lacing a cord through its eyes.” The name tells you exactly how the preparation works.

A clarification worth making early: Gwamegi was originally made exclusively with Pacific herring, which was cheap and plentiful along Korea’s coast. In the 1960s, Pacific herring populations declined and local fishermen shifted to Pacific saury (꽁치). The two fish are similar but Pacific saury is longer, slimmer, and less oily. Both are called gwamegi; today’s version is most often saury.

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How Is Gwamegi Made?

From mid-November to February, in the right Korean coastal village, you’ll see rows of drying racks hung with Pacific saury or herring, long, dark fish suspended in the sea air. The production process is specific:

Fresh fish are rinsed with seawater and then hung outdoors near the coast where the salty breezes blow. The fish go through a repeated cycle: frozen at night, thawed in the day, frozen again. This continues until the water content of the fish has dropped to approximately 40%. For Pacific saury, this takes 3 to 4 days; for the fattier Pacific herring, it takes around 10 days.

The salty coastal wind is considered the single most important element of the process, it prevents the fish from spoiling and creates the characteristic texture and flavor. Modern production maintains the same basic method.

Before serving, the fish are washed in Korean green tea, which helps mask any remaining fishy odor and adds a subtle cleanliness to the preparation.

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What Does Gwamegi Taste Like?

The half-dried state gives gwamegi a texture that sits somewhere between raw fish and dried fish, not fully cured, not fully fresh. The flesh is somewhat chewy but tender, with a concentrated, rich flavor from the oil retained in the saury or herring. It’s distinctly oceanic without being aggressively fishy, particularly after the green tea wash.

The oil is the defining element. Gwamegi is an oily fish and the half-drying concentrates the natural fats rather than driving them off. The texture is denser than fresh fish, less flaky, and the flavor is deeper and more savory. I ate some straight on its own when my father-in-law first prepared it, just to understand what I was working with. The combination of a wrapping and some sauce is better, but the fish on its own is already good. It’s something I look forward to eating each winter in Korea.

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How To Eat Gwamegi

Often gwamegi will be served at Korean style raw fish restaurants. The rest of the year, raw fish and other seafood will grace the menu but come winter, gwamegi will make a short but popular appearance. Accompanied by a multitude of vegetables and different types of seaweeds, it is a must try for any foodie looking for a unique treat in Korea.

My Korean family down in Busan also has some on hand in the winter when its available and that’s how I happened to try it the first time. My father-in-law carefully and adeptly took these long dark brown fish from a bag and proceeded to de-skin them and then slice them into bite size pieces.

My mother-in-law carefully prepared baskets of a variety of greens as well as dried seaweed and wet seaweed too. There are also green onions and leeks along with raw garlic and a sauce that is a made with red pepper paste mixed with sugar and vinegar. The gwamegi is then wrapped in the leaves and seaweed and the toppings are added in to taste.

Don’t get caught up in what you wrap around the gwamegi or in what order you do it. My husband prefers his with the dried seaweed, the red sauce and some leeks. My father-in-law prefers his with the kelp and red sauce and garlic. I even ate the fish as is just to see what it tastes like on its own.

With lettuce or without, with seaweed or without, this is an oily fish meal that is enticing and delicious especially when coupled with some Korean soju as my father-in-law would recommend. If you have an appetite for a winter Korean delicacy, this is the meal for you.

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Where To Eat Gwamegi

Gwamegi is a coastal fish food. My husband believes strongly that it should only be eaten near the southern or eastern coast, and he’s not wrong, the quality near Pohang and the other east coast fishing towns is significantly better than what you’d find in Seoul.

Guryongpo Harbor, Pohang is the most famous destination. The harbor itself is surrounded by gwamegi restaurants and stalls, and seeing the drying racks in operation during peak season (November through January) is an experience in itself.

Pohang Gwamegi Festival is held each November, an annual celebration of the fish with opportunities to see the preparation process firsthand, eat freshly prepared gwamegi, and photograph the rows of drying fish. Worth planning around if you’re visiting Korea in autumn.

Gwamegi also appears at Korean-style raw fish restaurants along the east coast during winter — the rest of the year the menu focuses on other seafood, but from mid-November onward, gwamegi makes its seasonal appearance.

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Gwamegi is a dish for the foodie loving winter traveler willing to head to the coast and try something few foreign visitors encounter. The production process is extraordinary to see, the flavor is excellent once you understand what you’re eating, and the whole experience, rows of drying fish in the sea wind, a table full of wrapping greens, a glass of soju on a cold day, is distinctly Korean in the best sense.

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