Busan is one of the representative destinations for a summer vacation in Korea. The metropolitan city, which is the second largest following Seoul in Korea, is a highly sought-after vacation spot because it is full of things you can enjoy and offers a beautiful scenery of the sea and islets. What’s more, there are many traditional marketplaces, and visitors can have some fun haggling over prices on the spot and getting things as cheaply as possible. That’s why the city is crowded with many tourists every year. About three million foreign tourists visited there last year. With the summer just around the corner, introduces some famous attractions and representing foods in Busan.

#Milmyeon, A North Food that can be Enjoyed at the Heart of Busan

Milmyeon(wheat noodles) is a local dish of Busan made with meat broth and noodles made of flour and starch, then garnished with boiled beef or pork slices and a boiled egg atop. The noodles contain starch that adds a gummier texture than that of ordinary noodles. The dish tastes like naengmyeon(cold buckwheat noodles). This is because some refugees from North Korea wanted to have naengmyeon back in the Korean War and they made this alternative noodle dish using flour, one of the relief supplies, to enjoy it as their comfort food. Milmyeon comes in two types—watery and spicy mixed types—like other Korean noodle dishes. Mul-milmyeon, which is the watery type, is highly popular especially in the summer season. You can get a whiff of freezing cold air right after you have it.

There is a famous restaurant serving milmyeon, and it is the very ‘Seomyeon Milmyeon’ located around the Seomyeon Station. It serves its three signature entries—mul-milmyeon, bibim-milmyeon(spicy mixed type), and dumplings—on its menu. After having milmyeon at this restaurant, wandering around ‘Jeonpo Café Street’ nearby and looking around ‘Book Culture’, which is a famous attraction for the lovers of comic books and popular novels. And then being intoxicated in Busan’s beautiful night may be just some of the things you are looking forward to in the summer.

*Additional Info.

No Need to Worry About Getting Lost in the City

For more tourism information about Busan, call 1330. They operate 24/7, and you can use it anytime you want. They give you the information in English, Japanese, and . They also offer real-time translation services, and you can call them if you need some help to communicate at taxies or restaurants.

#Dwaeji-gukbap, A Soul Food Comforting Busanians

Dwaegi-gukbap(pork and rice soup) cannot be ruled out when it comes to Busan. It is made by adding pork and cooked rice to meat broth made with pig bones, and served with chives salad, salted shrimp, and kkakdugi(diced radish kimchi) so that you can add these to the soup to your liking. It includes plenty of pork slices in the broth and tastes deep, and thus goes well with soju, a representative Korean distilled liquor. It is a soul food for the locals in Busan, and you can easily find some places where restaurants serving this comfort dish are gathered.

‘Halmae Gukbap’ with Fifty Years of Tradition, located five minutes away from the Beomil Station, is one of the famous restaurants serving dwaegi-gukbap and serves other dishes including noodles and sundae(Korean sausage) in addition to the pork soup. Around the restaurant, there is ‘Busan Gold Theme Street’ where a jewelry festival is held every year. It is also worth a visit after having a meal at the restaurant. There are also nearby attractions where you can enjoy a variety of things and buy some clothes at bargain prices. You can have some fun at Pyeonghwa and Jayu Market.

#Mulhoe, A Cold Bowl of the Sea

Mulhoe(cold raw fish soup) is a sweet-and-sour dish made by seasoning and mixing various seafoods and vegetables and adding the mixture to cold water. The seafoods to be added include sea cucumber, sea squirt, sliced raw flatfish, sliced raw rockfish, and others in season. The sauce for the cold soup is made with gochujang(red pepper paste) or doenjang(soy paste) as a base, adding a deeper taste of unique Korea paste. It was originally made by busy fishermen to just fill their stomachs in the middle of the sea and has now become one of special summer dishes thanks to its unexpectedly great taste.

There is practically no difference in taste, so you can try mulhoe at any place serving this dish. But, a restaurant near the beach may be a better choice because you can absorb the scent of the sea to boot while eating the mulhoe. One that is located by the sea near the Haeundae Station is highly recommendable because the sea is one of the most famous summer resorts in Korea. There are many food stalls and carts lined up around the beach in the evening, and so you can try various Korean seafoods there at night.

*Tip

If you choose the Gwangan Station over the Haeundae Station, you can still enjoy mulhoe along with the beautiful scenery of the sea.