Chili-paste haenaetang at a Yeonan Pier soup restaurant: Sopuri

A hearty hangover soup, a Yeonan Pier favorite for haejangguk.

I went to Yeonan Pier in Incheon and got properly cured of my hangover. I'd been drinking heavily until dawn the day before, and this really knocked it out.

Open 24 hours in front of the Yeonan Pier fish market

This time I visited 24-Hour Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk, Yeonan Pier General Fish Market Branch. Since it's open 24 hours, it works for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a dawn meal at Yeonan Pier.

I parked behind the restaurant. It's spacious, so parking is easy.

The restaurant is clean and felt like a place a lot of locals come to. Good for anglers, people using the Incheon Port passenger terminal, or anyone stopping by the Yeonan Pier fish market.

If you mix rice into the soup, the starch from the rice blends with the broth and makes it even richer and more savory! For takeout, it comes uncooked by default, but tell them in advance and they'll cook it for you.

What's on the menu at Sopuri

Yangpyeong haenaetang (innards + tripe), yangpyeong haejangguk (blood sausage + tripe), hanwoo beef head gukbap, bean sprout haejangguk, yeolmu naengmyeon (spicy/cold broth), stir-fried innards, innards hot pot. Beef, tripe, innards, blood sausage and kimchi are all domestic / all menu items available for takeout. There's also a new suyuk (boiled meat) dish.

· What I ordered · Hanwoo beef head gukbap, yangpyeong haenaetang (special)

Free refills of blood sausage, rice and side dishes

Delicious blood sausage and rice, unlimited refills.

The blood sausage was rich in flavor and nice and warm, and it's also good dipped in wasabi soy sauce. The rice comes in a big bowl, and knowing it's unlimited just makes you feel warm inside.

These are the default side dishes that come with the meal (the far left is somyeon noodles for the beef head gukbap).

You can help yourself to more at the self-serve bar. Personally, I love onion with doenjang (soybean paste) with gukbap or haejangguk, so I grabbed a lot. Onions are good for you too!

What does the hanwoo beef head gukbap taste like?

Hanwoo beef head gukbap and yangpyeong haenaetang.

I tried the broth first — no muddiness at all, clear, weighty, with a deep flavor. The first taste is clean, and the finish lingers. The somyeon noodles are a nice touch too (I love somyeon).

The chewy fat and tender lean meat work together really nicely. I personally hate dry meat, so the tenderness here was great. They give you wasabi soy sauce to dip it in too.

Eating the noodles, rice, and meat all together — it's just so good.

If you want a clean, light but hearty meal, go for the hanwoo beef head gukbap.

Special haenaetang: how to eat it with chili paste

My main dish, the yangpyeong haenaetang. Here's how to eat it for maximum flavor: chili paste, a swirl of chili oil, and a couple shakes of pepper!

On the table you'll find chili paste, chili oil, and pepper.

It looks heavy and hearty somehow.

I quickly mixed in the rice. You can see plenty of innards, bean sprouts, and tripe. The recommended way of eating is great, but since I still didn't know the flavor, I tried it plain first — and even plain, it was rich and delicious. The broth felt like it warmed you all the way through. Spicy~ sharp~ hot~ rich~

It was so good I kept shoveling it in with kimchi, kkakdugi (radish kimchi), and raw onion.

While enjoying it, I remembered the recommended way to eat it and added the chili paste — it got even spicier and hotter, and I liked it even more. Next I added chili oil, then pepper, tasting the change each time. Adding each one and watching the flavor shift was fun.

The innards and tripe had no gamey smell at all, and the savory flavor was great. Dipping them in wasabi soy sauce was fun too (personally I prefer piling them on top of the rice). For a hangover, spicy broth with innards and tripe really is the best!

Leaving Sopuri (and the free bottled water)

There's also cold free bottled water on the way out, so I grabbed one.

There's a sink near the entrance too, and you can grab a coffee.

Sopuri in one line

• 24-Hour Sopuri Yangpyeong Haejangguk / 10 Yeonan Pier-ro 33beon-gil, Jemulpo-gu, Incheon, 1st floor (Hangdong 7-ga 58-6), South Korea
• Spacious parking behind the restaurant
• Great unlimited self-serve bar for blood sausage, rice, side dishes
• Hanwoo beef head gukbap: no gamey smell, tender meat / broth is clean at first, weighty at the finish / good for a clean meal or a hangover
• Yangpyeong haenaetang: spicy, refreshing, sharp, hot, rich broth with savory chewy tripe and innards — properly cures a hangover
• Free cold bottled water to take on your way out

A Yeonan Pier favorite for a hearty 24-hour meal, or a hot, spicy, clean bowl of haejangguk.