5 Minutes of Jeju Seafood You Haven't Heard Of: Abalone Porridge, Black Pork, and a Whole Cutlassfish

Local breakfast, abalone porridge and noodle soup

Get: Abalone porridge (jeonbokjuk) and bomal-kalguksu, a whelk noodle soup

Our idea of the ultimate breakfast champions. The abalone porridge came out creamy and rich with real ocean flavor, finished with a sprinkle of toasted sesame. The bomal-kalguksu, a knife-cut noodle soup built on whelk and seaweed, had a rich, savory broth and noodles that were chewy without fighting back too much. Genuinely good enough to eat any time of day, not just breakfast.

Jeju black pork BBQ

Get: Grilled Jeju black pork, grilled abalone, shrimp, and crab, for $100 total across six people

Jeju pork you can't skip, and this version was noticeably bigger and meatier than what we get back home; we said the pork at our usual spot, BCD, looks almost malnourished by comparison. It came out sweet, garlicky, and hot off the grill. We grilled a whole abalone right alongside the pork, and it picked up some of the pork fat's flavor in the process, buttery and meaty enough to be some of the best abalone we've had, no dipping sauce required. Add in peeled shrimp and a side of crab eaten over rice, and the whole spread for six people came out to just $100.

Whole cutlassfish (galchi), deboned tableside

Get: A whole grilled cutlassfish, plus a smaller fried fish on the side

Recommended to us locally, and it's easy to see why: when the whole cutlassfish lands on the table, it really is the star of the show, worth having your camera ready. They skillfully debone the entire fish tableside, though a few stray bones can still sneak through, so pace yourself. This might have been the most fish bones we've ever picked through in one sitting, more hands-on than we're used to, but genuinely satisfying to work through.