A word on Agoo-Chim

When I decided I was definitely coming to Korea I started gathering information about the city I was going to be teaching in -- Masan. One thing that intrigued me for a while was something called monkfish soup. If you look up Masan on the internet you'll quickly find out that monkfish soup, locally known as agoo-chim is a famous dish here. I also read that they had an Iron Chef battle dedicated to monkfish soup. Masan is a port city, and as evident from the fish market post a few weeks ago -- people really like their seafood here. Technically, I live in a part of Changwon, but my neighborhood is pretty much the border between Masan and Changwon.

So the day before yesterday, my co-teachers wanted to come over and take a look at my pad. We decided we'd stop by my place and I'd give them the quick one minute tour. There's not much to see when all you have is a decent size room, a kitchen, balcony/utility area, and a bathroom. After a little chatting about how "big" my place was compared to theirs, we stepped outside and explored my neighborhood. We headed towards the busy part of Parlyong Dong and found a restaurant that served seafood pajeon (one of my favorites) and they wanted to introduce me to agoo-chim for the first time. I got really excited because I had been wanting to taste this dish even before I set foot in Korea.

Agoo-chim is a spicy stew that has monkfish. I looked up a picture of monkfish once and it's a scary looking animal. It probably has a lot of mercury in it since it's pretty large, but that's beside the point. Bean sprouts help make up most of the dish and some sort of shellfish.When the waitress brought it out, she asked my co-teachers if I'd be alright? She was concerned I couldn't handle the spice. I chuckled and told her not to worry about me. Agoo-chim is really spicy. Although I didn't have much trouble with it. I remember once Nolan and I went to a seafood restaurant and the man at the table next to us was eating agoo-chim. Throughout the whole meal his face was red and he was sweating as if the flood gates to all his glands had just opened up. Fortunately, I did not have this problem. I really enjoyed my meal with my co-workers. They taught me a little more about Korean culture, a few new Korean words here and there. And I tried to explain America's investment banking woes as best I could. Agoo-chim didn't turn out to be one of the best dishes, but I'm glad I satisfied my craving of it, finally. I'll blog again pretty soon about another thing I tried called Hae-Mul Tang.