Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern travels to Korea

Travel Channel's popular show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern travels to Seoul, South Korea, where he feasts on the most authentic Korean soups, barbecues and fermented foods. Andrew's Korean adventure goes beyond eating when makes his first batch of fresh kimchi. Below is a list of where he went to and what he ate.

Noryangjin Fish and Seafood Market
Andrew begins his visit to Seoul by passing through the Southeast corner of Seoul to visit the Noryangjin Fish and Seafood Market. This 700,000-square-foot market displays daily catch from 15 different seaports all over Korea with about 700 different vendors. Andrew does a little sampling and also picks out a few oceanic creatures to cook up later. Some food he samples includes raw sea squirt with fresh chili-garlic sauce and taw mussel clam scallop.

The Blue Sea Restaurant
Once Andrew is finished shopping at the market, he steps outside and heads for The Blue Sea Restaurant. Here the Chef will prepare the fresh seafood that Andrew purchased at the market. This is where Andrew experiences something completely new to his senses including raw snapper, baby octopus tentacles and soup made from octopus head and also the head, tail and bones from a snapper.

Seoil Farm
About 70 miles outside of Seoul, Andrews visits a place that ferments the popular bean paste. He learns how the soybeans are turned into bean paste and checks out the fermentation process. Andrew samples an 8-year-old fermented bean paste.

Business Disctrict
Visiting a noisy little place in the Business District, Andrew finds himself with a great snack. The best part of eating in Korea is all the different flavor combinations that you could imagine, including pork back soup with a side of fermented bean paste.

Haenamdo-Sikdang
After visiting Seoil Farm, Andrew tries another Korean specialty, fermented skate. He finds the taste unbearable and cannot stand the smell. Koreans, however, have a taste for skate that has been spoiling for days at room temperature. The process is fairly intriguing and different than you might imagine.

Namdoe
In Korea, a meal is not a meal unless there is soup. Each and every restaurant has its own specialty soup, and this restaurant’s specialty is “Dead Body Soup.” The soup earned its name from its distinct odor. Rumor has it that once you’ve had it three or four times, you become used to the smell and start enjoying the taste. Andrew samples "Dead Body Soup," a soup made of pickled squash, kimchi, garlic, onion, green chili, red chili powder and tofu.

Wonju Chuotang
The house specialty of Wonju Chuotang is Loach Soup. The loach is mudfish harvested from the freshwater ponds. Asian cuisine is based on the belief that food is best when it is very fresh. It is cultural tradition in Korea that food imparts more vitality when eaten as close to alive as possible. Loach soup is made with sweet garlic, hot chilis and mudfish.

Cham Sulungtang
Still in Seoul, Andrew visits a third restaurant for the day. All the soups here are classic examples of using soup to make good food out of limited ingredients. Soups popularity evolved as a good way for poor families in hard times to add bulk and flavor to limited food options. Andrew eats ox tail soup, congealed blood soup and knee cartilage.

Chamsutgama
In a suburb of Seoul, Andrew visits Chamsutgama, a place that allows people to enjoy a fabulous barbecue and a relaxing sauna at the same time. Koreans have been using the sauna since the 1400s as a way to draw sickness out of the body. A lot of Korean food is served family-style and it involves a lot of activity. Andrew tastes barbecued pork and kimchi.

Daymorn Kimchi Factory
Walking though the Daymorn Kimchi Factory, Andrew gets to experience the amount of preparation it takes to enter the part of the factory that makes kimchi. He learns how to prepare kimchi and finds that it is a very long and difficult preparation process. He struggles the first few times to prepare the kimchi correctly and is very proud of himself when his kimchi makes it down the line and into the bag. The factory employees are turning out 200 tons of kimchi every month.

Kondae Street
In Seoul, South Korea, right next to Konkuk University, the best place to be after dark is Kondae Street. At night, this place is a flashing neon jungle and the university area is packed with mostly students looking for a cheap meal. One of the best places to find the cheap eats are at the snack carts. Some of the cheap eats Andrew tries include dukboki (little rice dumplings in a sea of chili paste), soondae (blood sausage, cellophane noodles and rice) and liver sprinkled with seasoning.

Lambland
Seoul is obsessed with new technology and also with restaurants. Put those two things together, and you have one of the most vigorous food-blogging cultures on the planet. Andrew begins with a food crawl with three food bloggers from Seoul. They take him to Lambland and try something new to them all. Andrew tastes turtle soup, cooked whole in broth of Goji berry, ginseng, garlic and onion.

Hamul Nara Restaurant
Said to be one of the best places in town to eat the deadliest fish in the sea, Andrew visits Hamul Nara Restaurant. Blowfish, also know as Fugu, has liver and glands that carry a poison with no antidote. A specially licensed chef must remove the poisoned glands without cutting into them or cutting into the meat. Any amount of poison, as much as the size of a pin head, is enough to kill a person. The classic version of blowfish is to slice it so thin that it is almost transparent. Andrew eats fugu and deep-fried fufu, which is similar to fish and chips.

Jangeo-Gui Restaurant
The last of the three restaurants for the day is Jangeo-Gui Restaurant. At this visit, Andrew enjoys grilled eel (similar to pork), one of his favorites from the day.

Mapo Naruta
One of the best restaurants in town for barbecuing beef is Mapo Naruta. In Korea, beef is expensive and every part of the animal is used. When it comes to Korean barbecue, the popularity is huge and the quality of the food is extraordinary. Andrew samples galbi, arguably the most famous, which is marinated in soy sauce and fruit juice with ginger and garlic. He tries gobchang-gui, the small intestines of the ox. Andrew also eats omasum, the third compartment of the ox stomach and raw ox liver.

Tune in Tuesdays April 21, 2009 at 10 E/P on the Travel Channel!
Visit: travelchannel.com/bizarre