For CNY of 2023, we went on a family trip to Jeju island, South Korea, for some family time, sight seeing, and plenty of food adventure. Our first meal proper meal (the McDonald’s right after we landed didn’t count) was at Myeongjin Jeonbok Abalone (ë¹„ì§“ì œì£¼). Here’s how it went.
Myeongjin Jeonbok Abalone, Jeju Island, South Korea
Myeongjin Jeonbok is located at the North-East area of Jeju Island, roughly an hour’s drive from the airport at less than 40 kilometers away. Well, Jeju’s roads, while very well maintained, does have a lot of traffic lights and is rather speed limited.
Since it was winter time and the restaurant is by the seaside, expect lots of wind and (sometimes) freezing temperature. Luckily, parking is relatively easy to find nearby so we didn’t have to be out at the elements too long.
The menu is fairly simple, there are only four dishes with abalone, and five if you include the grilled saba (mackerel) fish. Since there were four of us and we were hungry, we basically ordered everything. Interestingly, the fish was thrown in free of charge for us, most likely since we ordered the entire menu.
grilled abalone and abalone porridge
Our first dish was abalone sashimi (30,000 krw for 400 gram) , six pretty decent size abalone sliced up and served raw. As you’d expect, they were packed with that seafood sweetness, the main portion had a texture that’s a little bit hard and crunchy that’s not exactly unlike chicken breast cartilage.
This was had with some (I assume) gochujang sauce which did its trick, though I think I’d probably preferred soy sauce and wasabi, but we’re in Korea so..
Next was the grilled abalone (30,000 krw for 500 gram) that’s probably the best bang for the bucks. There were altogether 11 abalone freshly grilled in this and they were so delicious! Fresh abalone tasted very different from the canned version we get here in Malaysia, it’s almost like comparing canned lychee vs fresh ones. This is a must-order.
grilled mackerel and abalone sizzling stone rice
The abalone sizzling stoned rice (15,000 krw) was quite a delight as well with generous portion of sliced abalone served. If you wanna packed your stomach, this is one to go with. And if you’re feeling a bit too cold from the weather outside, the abalone porridge (12,000 krw) should do the trick in warming up the stomach in a somewhat luxurious way.
The free mackerel (5000 krw if order separately) turned out to be a great addition to the dinner as well, perfectly grilled with the meat very lightly cooked while retaining all the moisture and freshness.
we ordered everything on the menu
As with any Korean dinner, the banchan (side dishes) comes with every meal and you can always ask for free refills. The kimchi were nice, and there were also some seaweed and sesame oil laden vegetable. We didn’t eat that marinated cilipadi thingy tho.
our first dinner at Jeju island, mom was happy, I promise
Overall it was a great meal and a great start to our trip, I’ll be penning more eateries in Jeju on this space.
Thanks for reading!
Address:
Myeongjin Jeonbok Abalone
1282 Haemajihaean-ro,
Gujwa-eup, Jeju-si,
Jeju-do, South Korea
GPS: 33.532722, 126.850229
Tel: +82647829944
Lucky you! Going off on a holiday! My favourite in Korea would be the mee sua in the intoxicating ginseng chicken soup – so good in the cold winter!
suituapui: oh yesss, those ginseng chicken soup is so good, we tried too, and I’ll be writing about that soon enough 🙂
I don’t think I’ve had raw abalone before…. O.O
Choi Yen: doubt we’ll find this in Malaysia.
I wanna try abalone sashimi!!!
CleverMunkey: book ya tickets for honeymoon! haha.
Wow, that’s a great price for abalone (if my conversion is right, it’s about RM100?). A friend of mine had whole abalones in KL over CNY and just that dish alone cost RM700 she told me…omg (I didn’t ask how her many pieces)! :O If the prices in KL is like what you had, I’d want abalone done in any way….sashimi, grilled, in soup, in rice, in porridge…lol! Do you know of any Korean restaurants here offering abalones? 😉 P/S: Abalone served whole can be a bit too chewy and hard for the older folks, that’s why your mom wasn’t smiling in the photo? Wakakakaka! 😀
eatwhateatwhere: yessss, abalone is cheaper there by a lot and they’re fresh so eating whole also won’t be chewy! Mom’s style memang macam tu. hahaha.
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