Busan's Markets: What to Eat, and the Right Hour to Turn Up

Busan eats differently from Seoul. It is a port and a refugee city, and its signature dishes were invented out of what the sea gave and what wartime shortage allowed. The markets are where all of that is still on the counter.

• Jagalchi: Korea largest seafood market, best in the early morning
• Gukje and BIFF Square: street snacks, best late afternoon
• Bupyeong Kkangtong: a night market, so go after dark
• Note: Jagalchi traditionally closes on a couple of Tuesdays each month, so check before making a special trip

Hoe, at Jagalchi, before ten in the morning

Raw fish here is not a restaurant dish, it is a transaction. You choose from the tanks on the ground floor, agree a price, and the vendor sends it upstairs where a room full of small restaurants will slice it and set it down with sesame oil, gochujang, garlic and perilla leaves for a modest preparation fee. Flounder and sea bream are the reliable picks. Go early, when the auction floor energy is still in the building.

Kkomjangeo, grilled in the alley

Hagfish, split and grilled hard over charcoal with chilli, is a Jagalchi institution and one of the more confronting things you can order in Korea. It is chewy, smoky and much better than its reputation. The grill stalls run into the evening.

Ssiat hotteok, in the Gukje Market alleys

Busan took the standard Korean sweet pancake, fried it, then split it open and packed the molten brown-sugar centre with sunflower, pumpkin and peanut seeds. The result is a genuinely local invention and the best two minutes of queuing in the city. The stalls around Gukje Market and BIFF Square are the classic spot, busiest from mid-afternoon.

Eomuk, all day and everywhere

Busan is the heartland of Korean fish cake. In its plainest form it is skewers simmering in anchovy broth at a market stall, eaten standing up with a paper cup of the broth. In its modern form it is bakery-style shops selling filled fish-cake croquettes to take home. Do both.

Dwaeji gukbap, at any hour

The dish that defines the city: milky pork bone broth with rice, dressed at the table with chives, shrimp paste and chilli. It grew out of the Korean War years and it is still what Busan eats after a long night or before an early boat. Around the market districts you will find gukbap streets where the pots have not been off the heat in decades.

Milmyeon, from late spring onwards

When buckwheat was scarce, cooks in Busan made cold noodles from wheat flour instead, and milmyeon stuck. Chewier and slightly sweeter than the northern original, served in icy broth. It is a hot-weather dish, so it comes into its own from about May.

After dark at Bupyeong Kkangtong

The market takes its nickname from the canned goods traded here after the war. In the evening its central lane turns into a food street of small stalls, and it is the easiest place in Busan to graze widely without committing to a full sit-down meal.

Tip: Bring cash in small notes. Many stalls take cards now, but the ones you most want to eat at are often the ones that do not.