Sokcho salted seafood tasting and ice-pack packing: Hwangbuja Jeotgal

A food crawl around Sokcho Central Market is something you simply cannot leave out on a Sokcho trip! There are so many kinds of jeotgal (salted fermented seafood)—enough for their own alley—and the portions are so generous that we just couldn’t leave without buying some 😊

A Sokcho Central Market favorite for jeotgal: Hwangbuja Jeotgal

Sokcho Central Market is one place you can’t skip when visiting Sokcho, right? :) As we browsed all the market food, we headed toward the jeotgal alley to buy some salted seafood as side dishes to take home and as travel gifts! But once we got there, there were really so many jeotgal shops, haha. Similar-looking shops lined the street, so we spent quite a while wondering, “Where on earth should we buy from?” 🤔

A shop at the entrance to the jeotgal alley

After parking and entering Central Market, Hwangbuja Jeotgal is right around the entrance to the jeotgal alley! It is a little way down from the popular market food sulppang (rice wine bread) shop, and it also operates alongside a fried-food shop.

Can you taste the jeotgal before choosing?

What I liked here was that you can sample the products before deciding ⭐️ It is hard to tell how salty something is or what the seasoning tastes like just by looking. Even familiar jeotgal such as pollock roe or squid jeotgal varies a little in seasoning from shop to shop, so being able to try it first turned out to be a bigger advantage than I expected 🦑❣️

What kinds of jeotgal are on the counter?

✅ Once you step up to the counter, you can immediately see that the selection is huge. There was everything from familiar choices such as pollock roe, squid jeotgal, scallop jeotgal, octopus jeotgal, changran-jeot (salted pollock intestines), fermented flounder, fermented squid, and spicy seasoned pollock to seed jeotgal and varieties that are not so easy to find every day.

In particular, pollock roe was not just one item: there were low-salt white pollock roe, seasoned pollock roe, and broken-grade pollock roe, making it easy to choose according to your preference. The counter was neatly arranged, and the staff explained things right away, so I think even people unfamiliar with jeotgal would find it easy to choose.

At markets like this, I think it is part of the fun when someone says, “Try this one!” and lets you taste a little, haha. There were spicy varieties, deeply savory ones, and kinds that were not as salty as expected, so as you taste them one by one, you can end up choosing something completely different from what you first had in mind. So if you are looking for good jeotgal in Sokcho, I recommend tasting them yourself and choosing what suits your palate!

We packed squid jeotgal and pollock roe

Personally, squid jeotgal and pollock roe are staples we always keep on hand, so we packed some to take home this time 😊⭐️

Packing designed with travel in mind

One of the things that satisfied me most at Hwangbuja Jeotgal was the packing 🛍️ When you buy jeotgal during a trip, you quietly worry about whether the car will smell or whether it will stay at a good temperature until you get home. Here, though, they carefully sealed the containers and packed them securely with 🧊 ice packs!

(✔️ This is a photo of the jeotgal portioned out for freezer storage 🙂) Even after traveling quite a distance and opening it at home, there was absolutely no jeotgal smell outside the package, and I was surprised that the ice inside had barely melted. This kind of packing really matters for anyone carrying it around during a trip or loading it into a car! Thanks to it, we could bring everything home without worrying until the very end.

The jeotgal was so fresh that we also made a wonderfully refreshing soup with the pollock roe.

They say nationwide delivery is also available, not only in-person purchases! When you start thinking about the delicious jeotgal you had at the shop, you can order it without going all the way back to Sokcho, and it seemed like a nice way to send a Sokcho travel gift to parents or family too. With so many varieties, it would make a more practical gift than most snacks or souvenirs for anyone who loves rice side dishes, haha.

There are so many shops in Sokcho Central Market’s jeotgal alley that it can be hard to decide where to go. What stayed with me about Hwangbuja Jeotgal was being able to sample and choose from many varieties, the wide selection, and the careful packing that gives travelers peace of mind. If you are looking for rice side dishes to bring home or travel gifts after a Sokcho trip, it could be worth stopping by :) Jeotgal differs so much by personal taste, and being able to try it before choosing was what I liked most!