Yoon Visits Jagalchi Market: "I Came Here Often as a Student... Still Remember the Sea Squirt Bibimbap Restaurant"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] "I often went to a place in Tongyeong for lunch, and I still remember the sea squirt bibimbap restaurant."

On the 31st, President Yoon Suk-yeol, who visited Busan to preside over the 27th Sea Day Commemoration Ceremony and the 2030 Busan International Expo Public-Private Joint Meeting, recalled this while eating a piece of sea squirt at a restaurant in Jagalchi Market.

President Yoon reminisced about his time working as a prosecutor in Busan from August 2001 to January 2022, explaining memories related to Busan’s famous restaurants such as "Myungmul Hoejip was famous," and "It was right next to the Gwangalli official residence, so I often went there on my way home."

On the same day, between the Sea Day Commemoration Ceremony and the Busan International Expo public-private meeting, President Yoon visited Jagalchi Market to check seafood prices and market trends after the lifting of quarantine measures, and had lunch with Jagalchi Market officials and fisheries industry representatives.

Before lunch, President Yoon purchased a plate of flatfish using a Busan regional gift certificate at one store. Cameras also caught him holding flatfish and octopus with his hands and a net, then dropping them. Passing by a place called Shingwang Sanghoe, President Yoon pointed and said, "This is a place I often visited since I was a student." When the store owner served him two pieces of abalone sashimi, President Yoon ate them on the spot.

Even while moving around, President Yoon exchanged fist bumps with merchants and heard comments like, "Wow, have you lost a lot of weight?" Upon entering the restaurant, the lunch menu included flatfish hoe-deopbap (raw fish bibimbap), flatfish soup, and side dishes such as abalone, sea squirt sashimi, and seaweed salad.

Kim Jae-seok, head of the Busan Fishery Processing Cooperative, said, "President Yoon is the fourth president to visit Jagalchi Market, following former presidents Roh Tae-woo, Kim Dae-jung, and Park Geun-hye." President Yoon said, "I came last July, and this is my second time since starting politics," adding, "I used to come here a lot when I was a student."

When Kim expressed a complaint about the high market management fees and the difficulty of paying usage fees, President Yoon said, "I will pay attention to this, so get a written pledge from those running for Busan mayor," which caused laughter among those around him.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.