Abalone Kalguksu @ Jeju ICC Food Court, Jungmun, Seogwipo

The title caught you by surprise? I know the food in an unassuming food court did. The best part of going off the beaten track on your own is you do not know what to expect and when you get something surprising like this, it makes a trip so much more memorable.

After a visit to the scenic beaches of Jungmun, we decided to visit the International Convention Center, or ICC in short to have a look around  as it was nearby. After some walking around we ended up at the food court. As it was closing to lunch, we just opted to have our lunch there. 

Easy to read right?

I ordered an abalone kaiguksu soup bowl which stood at ₩7,000. For the record, that was the cheapest meal for my Jeju trip.  There was an English menu on the board but ordering was via a ticket booth and it was all in Korean. I was lucky that there was an engineering convention going on and there were some English speaking visitors around which helped me translate the menu. For your info, kalguksu means cut noodles in Korean. 

Seafood treasure!

The bowl came with an entire abalone, which in itself makes the whole dish very reasonable. I was expecting just a few slices of such a prized ingredient, but this took the cake! It was very firm and sweet and amazingly fresh. Then I realised, that there was a whole tank of them at the back of the counter. So that shows how fresh it can be over here. 

More shellfish goodness where that came from

However, the dish not not just about that abalone. The soup strewn with fresh squid and clams. The soup was loaded with seafood aromas, with the sweetness of the clams and abalone really standing out. The noodles are alright. They were smooth and firm  and nothing to shout about To me, that was fine, as it should not overpower the other ingredients. Still, it complemented the whole dish.  It was a potpourri of the ocean.

The sign from the stall I got the noodles from 

The whole bowl went down like a storm and I learnt a valuable lesson: not to underestimate mall food court food. Well, I do not think it is really worth the trip to go all the way to ICC to have this meal of noodles. But in the event that you are around Jungmun, why don't you check it out? The address of the ICC is as follows:

2700 Jungmun-dong, Seogwipo, Jeju-do, South Korea