Sokcho Tourist & Fishery Market, Marketplace in Sokcho, South Korea
The Sokcho Tourist & Fishery Market, also known as Jungang Market, is a marketplace in the center of Sokcho, South Korea, offering fresh seafood, fermented fish products, and street food. It is organized across several sections, with a basement fishery hall displaying live tanks and ground-floor food stalls lining covered alleys.
The market was founded in 1953, shortly after the Korean War, when many displaced families settled in Sokcho. Some regional dishes found here, including sundae made with blood sausage and stuffed squid, trace back to those refugee communities.
One section of the market is known for dakgangjeong, a sweet and spicy fried chicken snack that draws long lines in the evening. Another section sells jeotgal, salted and fermented seafood that many visitors take home as a food souvenir.
Arriving in the morning gives you the best choice of fresh seafood before supplies run low. In the evening the street food alleys get busy, so plan your timing depending on what you are looking for, and bring some cash for smaller stalls.
Some vendors in the basement hall will cook freshly purchased seafood on the spot for a small fee, letting visitors eat what they just chose from the tanks. In October, the Seorak Festival brings demonstrations on fermenting seafood to the market, adding a learning side to the visit.
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