Saturday morning engawa sushi and mulhoe takeout in Incheon: Minyeong

Do you know the raw fish restaurant 'Minyeong Hwareo Gongjang'? It's a spot my family visits pretty often, and this time I was really craving sushi, so I went to the branch at Moraenae Market in Namdong-gu.

What kind of shop is Minyeong Hwareo Gongjang Moraenae Market Branch?

Minyeong Hwareo Gongjang Moraenae Market Branch is a takeout-only shop at Moraenae Market in Namdong, Incheon — you can't eat in the store. It runs on a same-day-made, same-day-sold principle, so you get fresh, high-quality sushi and raw fish.

Moraenae Market in Namdong, Incheon is the largest market in Incheon, you know? I went on the weekend and there were SO many people haha.

I arrived around 10:30am on Saturday, and they were making sushi nonstop, with a steady stream of customers too! My targets for the day were 'mulhoe' and 'sushi' — especially the mulhoe, since I had such a delicious memory of it from an Incheon baseball stadium and wanted to properly try it again. So I visited partly to let my mom and dad taste it too haha.

Menu at the Moraenae Market branch

First, the menu! The scale varies by branch, and since the Moraenae Market branch isn't that large, it leaned more toward sushi than sliced raw fish. Still, there were quite a few sushi varieties, and everything looked so fresh my mouth started watering right away!

That was about the size of the displayed menu, but looking further in, I could see plenty more sushi that hadn't been put out yet! The items I'd already decided to buy were on display, so I picked right away.

Engawa sushi 15,000 won and mulhoe 16,000 won

What I picked was 'engawa sushi' and 'mulhoe'! Engawa is the Japanese word for a fish's fin muscle — it has great texture and a nutty flavor, and it's one of my favorite cuts. They had a pack made up entirely of engawa sushi, so they packed it up right away. The price is ₩15,000 per pack.

I chose the mulhoe because I'd had it at an Incheon baseball stadium and remembered it being so delicious, and I wanted to properly try it again. It's ₩16,000. (Best decision of the day.)

What comes in the takeout package?

All packed up! Minyeong Hwareo Gongjang packs everything into a nice-looking cold bag like this haha. After picking it up, I bought a few more market snacks and headed straight home. (You've got to hit and run at the market — walking around too long just makes you hungrier lol.)

Now let's get ready to actually eat haha. With the takeout, they give you plenty of ginger, pickled radish, soy sauce, and wasabi as standard, and if you ask for more they'll add more. (I'm the type to ask for extra wasabi hahaha.)

How does the engawa sushi taste?

Here's the engawa sushi! Doesn't it look really good? (It really was.) They sliced the fish thick and generous, so the texture was great and it was packed with nutty flavor — honestly good enough that I'd want to buy 2-3 packs of just engawa and skip everything else. It's my number one pick at Minyeong Hwareo Gongjang ><

The balance of rice and fish... it honestly felt like there was more fish than rice! Sushi with an almost crazy texture — crisp yet also chewy somehow. (I want to eat it again.)

Winner of the day: the mulhoe

And now, the dish I genuinely enjoyed most that day — the mulhoe! It was even more satisfying than the engawa sushi I raved about. It went perfectly with everything else we bought at the market, and it was spicy, tangy, sweet, and refreshing in a way that just kept going down.

I'll say it plainly: this was the best mulhoe I've ever had.

My mom and dad also said the mulhoe here was delicious and finished every last bit haha.

There was so much raw fish in the mulhoe that I got to enjoy fish all the way to the last spoonful. Besides sliced fish, there was also abalone, cuttlefish, and other ingredients mixed in — and the fish pieces in particular were really big haha.

I'd say the fish in this mulhoe might be the biggest I've seen in any mulhoe — seriously giant-sized. We were so satisfied that I think mulhoe is going to be our fixed order from now on!! As the one who recommended and introduced this place, I'm relieved it turned out to be such a satisfying meal. ╰(★∇★)╯