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Start
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Mt. Mireuk
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Miraesa Temple
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Haean-Nurigil
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Dala Observatory
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Chungmugimbap
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Hansando
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Myulchi Maeul Sikdang
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Dongpirang Village
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Jungang Market
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Finish
The best full-course anchovy recipes in Tongyeong - Myulchi Maeul Sikdang(anchovy village restaurant) 멸치마을식당
It's not exaggerating to say that most of seafood served in sushi restaurants in Seoul/Gyeonggi-do is from Tongyeong and among various kinds of fish, the only kind that we can't see it on the table in those areas is anchovy.
It's not that you can NEVER see it but anchovy dies quickly when it gets out of ocean so you could only eat the freshest and delicious anchovies in the region where they are caught. Another marine product representing Tongyeong besides oysters, anchovies!! Where we are going is Myulchi Maeul Sikdang(anchovy village restaurant) where we tried anchovies that taste the best in spring.
This is a narrow alley with private houses and small companies in the neighborhood. You may wonder what kind of restaurant would be here but you will have to wait in line to eat here on weekends or when it's crowded with people.
My plan was to visit there during the week in off-season so there were a few people.
Myulchi Maeul Sikdang(anchovy village restaurant) which is located behind the Jungang Market full of fresh marine products specializes in anchovy recipes and you can try various dishes with anchovies there.
There's only one choice on the menu, full-course anchovy recipes, so we ordered it for 2. It costs 30,000 won for 2 people so the more people you have, the cheaper you pay.
As a famous restaurant, they show an award they won showing how good they are at cooking recipes with anchovies.
It was way past the lunch time around 4 so the restaurant was empty but it is a famous one with people lining up on weekends.
These are common dishes served first. We had lightly parboiled raw cuttlefish, shrimps and boiled peanuts, and raw cuttlefish was chewy and strong flavor which was very good.
As they serve you different types of recipes using anchovy, dried anchovies were there. It reminded me of old times when we used to eat dried anchovies because there was nothing special to eat after meals. I also remember seeing dried anchovies and a spoon of gochujang in lunch box.
Following the dried anchovies, the second dish came, which is called myulchi buchimgae(anchovy pancake).
I thought it was just a normal chives pancake but when I took a closer look, the grey color was glittering and it turned out to be anchovy. It is crunchy pancake with chives, vegetables and dried anchovies so it tastes like regular pancake but it was distinctively chewy.
This is the main dish, myulchi-hoemuchim(seasoned raw anchovies). Wow! I see how generous Tongyeong people are. First of all, it has plenty anchovies in each dish.
We'd have to order it for at least 4 people if we want to get this amount in a big city. It has enough anchovies in it. I've never had hoemuchim (seasoned raw anchovies) where you could see more raw fish than vegetables.
Sweet-and-sour sauce in raw anchovies stimulates my appetite. You might think that anchovies are very small fish but they were as big as a man's thumb, soft and fresh so they didn't smell fishy at all.
Soft raw anchovy tastes the best when you eat it with crisp vegetables. It has fish bones in it but the bones were weak so I had no problem with eating.
Fourth recipe is fried anchovies. I never knew anchovies were so big and chubby like this. They were like crunchy and had so strong flavor that are loved by women and children.
Fifth dish was anchovy rice, followed by myulchijjigae(anchovy stew), and the last one, myulchiguk(anchovy soup).
This is anchovy rice with small anchovies called shilchi and chopped seaweeds on it. It tastes clean and had a strong flavor when you eat it with spicy soy sauce served with myulchijeon (anchovy pancake).
When you are full enough, you could mix it with the leftover myulchi-hoemuchim (seasoned raw anchovies) as well.
This is kimchi stew boiled with chubby anchovies and we call them anchovies but it had 7 to 8 anchovies as big as a small mackerel pike.
The soup tastes refreshing and spicy. Anchovies tasted clean. This is really delicious.
Sirakguk, special soup in Gyeongsang-do, is never missed. Siraegi-doenjangguk (soybean paste soup with dried radish leaves) it is. This one also had anchovies to make the soup tasty.
It was generous of them to give us so much myulchi-hoemuchim (seasoned raw anchovies) and I thought I would regret it if I didn't finish it mixed them in my anchovy rice.
Soft anchovy texture and hard boiled rice was so good that I had to eat two bowls.
Anchovies taste the best in Tongyeong since they are impatient and die so quickly!!
Why don't you try various dishes including raw anchovies, fried anchovies, myulchi jjigae(anchovy stew) and anchovy rice at Myulchi Maeul Sikdang (anchovy village restaurant) then take a walk around Dongpirang Village close to the restaurant?
I honestly think that treating yourself with delicious food until you are full and enjoying the scenery is the purpose of traveling.
Address : 1161, Jeongryang-dong, Tongyeong-si, Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도 통영시 정량동 1161)
Telephone : 055-645-6729
Opening hour : 09:00 a.m. - 09:00 p.m. (no holidays)
