추어탕

추어탕 (Chuotang) - Korean Mudfish Soup

I first heard about this soup when I watched the episode about Korea on Andrew Zimmer's Bizarre Foods.  Most of the foods he tried I have also sampled, or at least seen, and most of them I didn't think were too out there, as far as "bizarre" goes.

The 추어탕 looked strangley intriguing (check out the link below) and I decided I would love to try some the next time I go to Korea.  We had some when we went to Korea last fall.  The soup that we tried didn't have the swimming mudfish dropped fresh into the hot pot, as in the video, but was made with a ground mudfish paste.  The taste was amazing!  It was pungeant, fresh, and very flavorful.  There were several Chinese herbs that were used to season it so it took on a very unique flavor.

My wife tells me that this is a traditional autumn food in Korea.  The flavor of the soup matched well with the damp, cool weather and unmistakable autumn scent in the air.

Watch Andrew Zimmer sample 추어탕 on Bizarre Foods