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Busan, South Korea
In a 1991 episode of “The Simpsons,” Homer goes to a Japanese restaurant and eats fugu, or toxic pufferfish. He turns into satisfied that he’s going to die, so he crosses off as many of the objects on his bucket record as doable.
There’s one wrinkle — the skillful chef managed to take away all the poison, so Homer’s completely superb and has to maintain residing his life.
Pufferfish, although, nonetheless has a dangerous status.
Yes, it’s toxic. Even a tiny quantity of the tetrodotoxin it incorporates will be deadly.
However, the fish will be ready in a method the place the poison is safely eliminated. In Busan, South Korea’s second-largest metropolis and a serious seaside vacation spot, pufferfish eating places abound.
While seafood is fashionable all throughout South Korea, pufferfish is a Busan specialty. The fishermen who’ve lengthy lived on this half of the nation simply catch them in the surrounding waters. The seaside Mipo neighborhood in Busan is thought regionally as “Pufferfish Village.” Several of Busan’s pufferfish eating places have been acknowledged by Michelin, which debuted its Busan information in 2024.
Pufferfish cooks require particular coaching and have to move an examination earlier than they’re licensed by a nationwide authorities division. Nervous diners can ask to see these certificates, that are often hanging on the wall inside the restaurant, to make sure they’re in secure fingers.
One of the most well-known pufferfish eating places in Busan is Chowon Bokguk — bokguk means pufferfish soup in Korean.
Although the restaurant is in an unassuming brick constructing on a typical facet road, it comes with vital status: founder Kim Dong-sik was the first licensed pufferfish chef in Busan.
At lunchtime, guests can order a set menu the place the fish is ready in a soup. The wealthy broth incorporates greens like bean sprouts, white radishes and water parsley, whereas deep-fried pufferfish fritters are served as an appetizer.
The meal arrives with a full set of banchan, Korean facet dishes, that embrace two completely different sorts of kimchi, water spinach and rice. The most fundamental of these units prices 18,000 gained (about $12).
Soup with a facet of scandal
Chowon Bokguk’s status, although, goes nicely past its menu choices. Ask any native Busanite about it, and they’ll let you know that the restaurant was the web site of a big political scandal a long time in the past.
A gaggle of Busan political officers, together with the metropolis’s mayor and police chief, have been having a meal at the restaurant in 1992. Unbeknownst to each them and the restaurant’s house owners, Chowon Bokguk had been bugged.
It was a traditional case of political espionage. Figures linked to the Unification People’s Party eavesdropped on high-ranking authorities rivals from the Democratic Liberal Party as they plotted to affect presidential elections.
The tapes dropped like a bombshell simply three days earlier than the election, inflicting a serious scandal. The “Chowon Bokguk incident” led to a landmark authorized case that, mockingly, noticed members of the Unification Party convicted of trespassing for planting bugs with out permission.
Today, Chowon Bokguk is to Busan what Watergate is to Washington D.C., and lately the restaurant prefers to maintain a low profile, letting its meals do the speaking.
The restaurant is fashionable for workday lunches, with an attendant serving to vehicles maneuver in and out of the small lot in entrance of the constructing.
Pufferfish consumption has lengthy roots in South Korea. It was a specialty meals for the Joseon dynasty, Korea’s ultimate dynasty, which spanned from the 14th by way of the early twentieth century, however Korean meals historian Park Sung-bae believes it was eaten nicely earlier than that.
Although it’s typically claimed that pufferfish got here to South Korea by way of Japan, Park — who can be head chef at Seoul restaurant and meals lab Onjium — disagrees.
“Food culture has always been an exchange,” he says.
“Korean cuisine itself is very diverse. Rather than following strict rules, it evolves through individual styles coming together. Japan tends to standardize and systemize its culinary rules, with everyone following them precisely. In Korea, things are less rigid. We aim to express philosophy within that irregularity. In the end, the goal is a sense of comfortable beauty.”
South Korea, Japan and China all have lengthy histories of consuming pufferfish. And, sure, many individuals died alongside the method as completely different teams realized about the fish and found that it was toxic. As a end result, some households banned family members from consuming it, and misconceptions abound even now.
One of the most toxic elements of the fish is its eyes. Trained professionals take away them, in addition to the bones and most inner organs, forward of cooking. As the fish’s blood additionally incorporates a hint quantity of poison, it have to be washed away very rigorously. The pores and skin, in the meantime, is ok to eat and thought of one of the tastiest elements, plus it’s excessive in collagen.
“The combination of bean sprouts and pufferfish creates a refreshing, clean flavor, which is why it’s often eaten as a hangover soup,” says Park. “When cooked in a soup, there’s extra quantity to eat and the agency texture of fish pairs nicely with this cooking technique. It additionally provides a refreshing sensation that helps settle the abdomen.
The agency flesh of the Pufferfish makes it ideally suited for bulgogi, a Korean grilled dish that includes marinated meat or fish, he provides. “The fillets are thinly sliced, coated in starch and briefly rinsed in cold water to create a coated surface. This gives a delicate external layer while keeping the inside tender and chewy.”
Other eating places focus on uncooked, sashimi-style pufferfish, or make it into a form of jelly.
The reputation of pufferfish — and the continued perception that it’s too dangerous to eat — has resulted in a brand new wave of devoted pufferfish farms, which goal to breed out the poison completely.
The toxicity of a fish relies on its weight loss plan. By feeding it specifically managed meals with none presence of tetrodotoxin, the fish’s probability of being toxic is nearly zero. These days, almost all the pufferfish on restaurant menus in Busan are from a farm, circuitously from the sea.
But for Park, the enchantment of Korean bokguk is about a lot greater than cultural mythmaking. When requested why he has spent greater than 20 years finding out and getting ready pufferfish, he shrugs merely and says, “Just one reason: it’s delicious.”
Don’t anticipate eating places like Chowon Bokguk to stay native secrets and techniques for lengthy.
“Busan’s allure lies in its unapologetic blend of rugged maritime grit and whimsical artistry,” says Rachel O’Leary, senior journey designer at Jacada Travel.
O’Leary lived in South Korea for a number of years and now creates itineraries for vacationers there. She says that as South Korea turns into extra fashionable, vacationers are wanting to discover extra than simply the capital. Busan, with its beachy local weather, laid-back angle, and recent seafood, is a pure alternative.
In addition to having a meal at an area restaurant, O’Leary additionally sends her purchasers to the metropolis’s famed fish markets. The largest and best-known of these is Jagalchi Market, in Busan’s trendy Nampo neighborhood close to Busan Tower and the former Japanese concession. There, guests can choose recent fish and shellfish straight from the tanks and then head upstairs to have them cooked to order.