Seafood soup from yeonnam sikdang 연안식당. It’s the best thing to have in Korea on a frigid day. I think Korea does not get enough credit for their seafood, especially their soups. The daikon radish in the broth just adds something that is light, sweet yet not over powering. The leeks and watercress also add a bit of freshness as well. This soup had clams, red scallops and much more. The restaurant is also famous for their bibimbap made with cockles, chilies, green onions and buchu which is like a chive, but not. If you add some of their special sesame oil it makes it amazing. This restaurant has branches all over but I am a fan of the Mangwon one because the owners are nice. Yeonnam Sikdang 연안식당 [KakaoMap] 연안식당 망원점 134, World Cup-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul  http://kko.to/GClTSJK0M

Whole Lobster Dinner at Sausalito Sausalito Lobster One of the better meals that I have had in the last years was a Sausalito Lobster. The giant lobster came out like a the centerpiece of the table and it was expertly deconstructed by the host. The host puts on a show as he dissects the entire lobster from claw to flipper (yes, there is meat in the flipper and it tastes subtle and velvety.) The fried rice made with the innards of the mustard at the end is epic. A full review is forth coming with more pictures. A lobster here costs about 50,000-70,000. Reservations recommended. Near Fraser Suites Hotel in Insadong. Jongno-gu Insa-ro 285-ro. Ph# 02-720-5077.

Steamed Shellfish at Gol Mok Gil in Seoul, Korea My buddy Sean Choi from Groove Magazine is a Foodie's Foodie. He knows what's good in Korea and he often goes out of his way to find excellent, local Korean places. On Wednesday Night, he had a meet up with the writers of Groove Magazine and he was nice enough to invite me. If you might recall, I used to be their dining editor for a while, but I had to move on because I got too busy with work. Anyway, the place he took us to was called Gol Mok Gil (길목길). It's a bit of a pain to find, but it's totally worth it. The house specialty is Steamed Shellfish (조개찜 48,000 for large). Here you get a large variety of mussels, razor clams, scallops, and a variety of cockles. Great stuff and you get it all in a giant pot so it creates a rich clam broth which is later used to make a Knife-cut Noodle Soup. I also recommend you get an order of their potato pancakes (감자전). I later found out these came service- but I think they are i...

Pohang Susan 02-408-8817 Pohang Susan (soo sahn) is a restaurant (and I use "restaurant" loosely) in the fish market section of Garak Market. Most people go to Noryangjin for fresh fish and maeuntang (spicy fish stew), but I'm not a big fan. I've only eaten at a Noryangjin restaurant once and wasn't too impressed. The banchan was minimal and the maeuntang pretty much just had the fish we bought plus veggies. Maeuntang: Spicy Seafood Soup with octopus At Pohang it's different. Instead of buying the fish from a vendor and bringing it to the restaurant, the restaurant already has the fish in its tanks, presumably handpicked daily. If there's anything they don't have, just ask them and they'll have a guy bring it over from one of the vendors. Raw Red Snapper done Korean Style The quality of the fish is excellent, of course. We had wild red snapper, and it was awesome. The meat was firm and had no fishy smell whatsoever. It's such...

NYC Foodies Eric and Mehera came to Korea to eat. Eric had contacted me and asked me to accompany them to Noryrangjin Fish Market and this is what we saw and ate. Dan

Al Bap Kanjang Gaejang 간장게장 (Kanjang gaejang)/ Crab Marinated in Soy Sauce Fresh crabs are marinated in soy sauce seasoned with garlic, red pepper, ginger, and green onion. The sauce is brought to a boil and cooled and poured over the crabs until the crabs are pickled. The soy sauce ferments and tenderizes the crabmeat and gives it a gelatin like texture and flavor. 알 밥 (Al Bap)/ Fish Roe served with Rice and Vegetables in a Sizzling Stone Bowl Tiny fish eggs are served over rice along with various vegetables such as kimchi, radish, seaweed, chopped crab, and cucumber. The dish is served in a sizzling stone bowl called a dukbaeggi (뚝배기). The eggs are mixed with the rice and the vegetables and cooked by the stone bowl; the eggs have a crisp popping sensation as the dish is eaten.

Samarikand I was told over by the man who ran the Samarikand that there are 17 locations all over Korea and the same family runs them all. The food is authentic and portions are hearty. You can get a giant, flaky pastry bread stuffed with savory lamb (Samsa) for only 3000 won. 2000 won gets you a hearty frisbee sized sesame roll (Lepeshka) and 6,000 won gets you a big bowl of Borsch. The entrees don’t cost all that much either. You can get cabbage rolls stuffed with meat (Golubtsy) for or, my favorite, fried lamb over french fries (Chiz-Biz) for only 7. And you can wash all this down with big Russian beers labeled 3, 6, and 9. Samarikant 02-2277-4261 Directions: Go out Dongdaemun Stadium Station Exit 5 and walk until you see the 광교빌딩 and Woori bank. To the left is the A+ noraebahng, Samarakand is a few buildings before the A+ noraebahng.It is across the street and down an alley. Ask someone on the street. They all know where it is. (Thanks Paul for the update) 영진수산 (Yeong Jin Su San) ...

If you haven’t heard yet, Sam and Annabelle from Drivetime are having a special contest. They would like to have Annabelle to eat live octopus on the radio. She is vehemently opposed to this idea which makes this contest, oh, so more enticing. So to do this we need to have 100 people to vote “yes, to live octopus” on their message board. Go to the tbsefm website here. Hit the button to Drivetime and then hit "board" Write, "Yes for Octopus!" If you like Kimchi, you should vote, "Yes, for Octopus!" If you like Obama, you should vote, "Yes, for Octopus!" If you breathe oxygen, you should vote, "Yes, for Octopus!" Vote Yes! For Octopus!

I am not a big fan of buffet. I have small appetite, so it's always waste of money. Only seeing the many dishes makes me feel full and I usually end up having a few desserts instead of main dishes. When I stepped in the sea food buffet Muscus, I sighed. There were so many 'looks-so-delicious' sushi, rolls and sashimi. I knew that I could have only few of them. I would feel guilty to eat them all. Thankfully, its sushi and rolls are in one bite sizes, so I could have few of them without being full of rice. The rolls, overall, are quite good and sushi is also very nice. A few of them are never seen in other restaurants. The sashimi was little disappointing as buffets always does. It wasn't fresh enough and when it's not fresh, it has a fishy smell. The fried prawns were very crunch and newly fried- just perfect for tasting its full flavor. My other favorite was a crab meat with seasoned rice which was served in a crab shell. Price was reasonable, 20,000 won for weekd...

From boat... To land... To hand... To grill... Check out our makeshift meal... ...Hot sauce marinated mussels! -Cheri