Bupyeong Haemultang Street

Bupyeong Haemultang Street is home to a cluster of seafood stew (haemultang) specialty restaurants. The street, where restaurants opened in groups of three or five, sees trucks loaded with fresh seafood announcing the start of business every morning. Starting with just three restaurants in the early 1980s, Haemultang Street has now grown to about ten establishments and is thriving. A table is set with various seafood such as clams, conch, shellfish, octopus, oysters, mussels, shrimp, webfoot octopus, and blue crabs, along with the aroma of water parsley and bean sprouts. Each restaurant has a slightly different rich and deep broth flavor. Some boast a spicy and hot broth, while others pride themselves on a refreshing and clean taste. Water parsley and bean sprouts are added just enough to release their fragrance, with seafood making up most of the dish. Additionally, they offer steamed dishes and soups made with fresh seafood, such as braised anglerfish, steamed blue crabs, and blue crab soup. In the 1980s, when traffic was not as heavy as it is now, this street was so famous that there were more customers from Seoul than local ones. The reason the seafood here is fresh is that ingredients are purchased daily from Garak-dong Market and other places in the morning, and the secret to the taste of the seafood stew lies in the broth known only to the owners. Those who want a spicy version can request it when ordering. The specialty is seafood soups and steamed dishes, and some restaurants have developed new items like 'seafood nurungji soup' (a combination of seafood and scorched rice soup), constantly challenging new palates.