Three Korean Fish Stews Compared, Spicy Rockfish Against Clear Cod

The biggest differences are the colour of the broth and the vessel it arrives in. The rockfish spicy stew cuts the rockfish into sections with bone and head included and simmers it with radish and green onion in a chili paste and chili flake seasoning, which makes the broth red and deep, and it comes in the pot itself for several people to share. Cod soup uses little chili powder so the broth tastes clear and bracing, and it arrives in a single-portion earthenware pot. Fresh cod soup uses cod that was never frozen, so the flesh comes away thick along the grain and the broth carries more natural sweetness. The prices differ too. The rockfish stew is fixed-size pricing at KRW 50,000 small (about USD 36), KRW 80,000 medium (about USD 58) and KRW 100,000 large (about USD 72), while cod soup is KRW 15,000 (about USD 11) and fresh cod soup KRW 20,000 (about USD 14). At the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant, seven in ten evening guests pick the red broth after eating sashimi, while guests who come alone at lunch pick the clear one. Which is right is almost decided by headcount and hour alone. Three or more in the evening alongside sashimi means rockfish; one person at midday wanting a bowl of rice means cod. Those same two things are what the restaurant veteran with over a decade at Jagalchi reads from a table before recommending anything.

Once the pot arrives, bring it to a hard boil over high heat, then drop the heat to medium-low and leave it so it does not reduce. Keeping the lid on for the first 3 to 5 minutes cooks the rockfish flesh faster. Once the flesh has gone white and parts slightly from the bone, ladle it into your side bowl along with some broth. Taking it straight from the pot to your mouth means it is too hot to taste properly, and the broth keeps reducing, which makes it saltier the longer the meal runs. The radish has the broth flavour soaked into it so it comes after the flesh, while the green onion and crown daisy are better eaten before they wilt. Once all the flesh is out and the pot is about half empty, ladling rice into your side bowl and stirring it finishes the meal. At the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant, if you feel it has reduced too far we will add a little stock, so you only need to say the word. Around 7 PM on a weekend there are plenty of tables where conversation runs long between the pot arriving and the broth reducing, so we tell guests up front to drop it to medium-low from the start. Side dishes rotate daily based on what is fresh.

Because rockfish draws a deep broth flavour out of the bone and head, and its flesh is firm enough not to fall apart over a long simmer. Putting the bone and head left after the fish was cut straight into the pot means nothing gets thrown away and the broth runs considerably deeper than it would with flesh alone. After a plate of cold sashimi your mouth is left cool with a sense of richness lingering, and one spoonful of hot, bracing broth settles that feeling and makes another glass of soju go down. The cod side runs clear, so plenty of guests find it tastes flat when eaten after sashimi, which is why the close to a sashimi occasion goes to rockfish almost every time. If four people had a medium assorted platter at KRW 80,000, one small pot of this stew at KRW 50,000 covers everyone including the rice. At a table where a lot of sashimi was eaten, one size smaller still leaves some over. At the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant eight in ten sashimi tables end with this combination, and the other two put down charcoal-grilled hagfish instead of rice and carry on drinking.

When a spicy stew feels like too much, or you want a solid bowl of rice at midday, the grilled fish set at KRW 15,000 is the right one. It grills a whole fish like rockfish, mackerel or flounder and serves it with side dishes as a single-person tray, so you can empty a bowl of rice with no broth at all. The thing that differs most from the stew is time. A stew needs 20 minutes between the boiling and the cooling, while the grill can be eaten as it arrives, which suits anyone with a short lunch break. For a family with children, splitting the order with the rockfish stew for the adults and the grilled fish set for the child gives everyone something to eat. Blue-backed fish like mackerel carry plenty of oil so they taste best grilled, while rockfish and cod show their worth once they go into a broth. That is why the same fish gets divided between grill and stew. The reason the display case in front of the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant holds several plates of grilled fish is that most lunch guests come for this set. On a rainy day the opposite happens and stew orders rise, which means the weather effectively decides the menu.

Fresh cod soup uses cod that never went through freezing, while cod soup uses cod that was prepared and stored. Press the flesh with chopsticks and you know immediately. The never-frozen one comes away thick along the grain with elasticity, while the stored cod is soft but separates in thinner strands. The broth differs too, with the fresh side carrying more natural sweetness, which means less salt gets added. The prices are KRW 15,000 for the standard and KRW 20,000 for the fresh, a difference of KRW 5,000. If a hangover is the purpose, cod soup is enough on its own, because stirring rice into a clear, bracing broth settles the stomach either way. If you want plenty of flesh, or you are hosting older guests, fresh cod soup is the right one. Both come in a single-portion earthenware pot so coming alone is fine, and they arrive with green onion, water dropwort and chilli on top, so anyone who finds the heat too much can lift the chilli off. At the Jagalchi Haean-ro restaurant, around 11 AM it is common to see a guest who finished a drinking session the night before sitting with one earthenware pot in front of them. That hour has no wait, which makes it the easiest time to come alone.

Small is built for 2 to 3, medium for 4 to 5 and large for 6 or more. If you are having only the stew with no sashimi, those figures hold as they are; alongside sashimi, one size smaller is right. The ordering timing is when about half the sashimi is left. The stew takes around 10 minutes to come to the boil, so calling for it then means the pot arrives as the sashimi is finishing. Calling after you have eaten everything leaves the occasion dragging while you wait. The location is 220m from Jagalchi Station (Line 1) Exit 2 toward Jagalchi Haean-ro, about a 3-minute walk. It is two stops from Busan Station on Line 1, so you can be seated 20 minutes after stepping off the KTX, and a taxi runs about 10 minutes and KRW 6,000 to 8,000 from Busan Station, or 20 minutes and KRW 12,000 to 15,000 from Seomyeon. With 190 seats across the first and second floors it takes group dinners, and for 6 or more, calling +82-10-8998-4803 ahead holds the size and the seat. Between 6:30 and 8 PM is the busiest, so arriving before or after that gets you seated with no wait. Afterward, Yeongdo Bridge is a 7-minute walk and BIFF Square 5 minutes, which makes it easy to continue as a stroll.