Sauce-grilled hagfish and fried rice in Choryang, Busan: Gyeongbuksan
Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo is a hagfish (kkomjangeo) grill restaurant on Choryang-ro in Dong-gu, Busan, a 10-minute walk from Busan Station, opened in 1963 and now run by the third generation. The writer and a first-time hagfish eater ordered the medium sauce-grilled hagfish for two (₩55,000), seared over charcoal on a cauldron-lid grill and wrapped in perilla and bangah (Korean mint) leaves, then finished the meal with fried rice (₩2,500). The sweet-and-spicy sauce leaves no fishy smell, so Gyeongbuksan Kkomjangeo works even for hagfish beginners.