In Yeosu, You Eat Both the Octopus and the Baby Octopus

Mention Yeosu's sea and most people think of soy-marinated crab or seodae-hoe-muchim first. But what actually shows up most often on a local's drinking table is nakji (baby octopus) and octopus. From spicy stir-fried nakji-bokkeum, to tender octopus sukhoe, to octopus sam-hap that pairs raw and blanched octopus on one plate — just looking at the range of preparations tells you how many ways Yeosu locals have learned to work with these two ingredients. Day or night, at a stir-fry joint or a fish market stall, there are more ways to taste these two than you'd expect. Sudal, who's been swimming these Yeosu waters for 50 years, is here to walk you through how Yeosu eats its nakji and octopus.

Nakji Is Best Stir-Fried, But Steamed Is a Whole Different Thing

The first dish that comes to mind with nakji is nakji-bokkeum. Cleaned baby octopus gets stir-fried over high heat with onion, scallion, and carrot in a spicy gochujang-based sauce, and the smoky, wok-charred nakji stays chewy while the spicy sauce works its way into every vegetable. Toss in a bowl of rice at the end to finish it as fried rice, and you've basically covered two meals in one sitting. If you like spicy food, locals will tell you there's no better pairing for a bottle of soju.

Nakji-jjim takes a different approach than the stir-fry. Bean sprouts go down first, nakji on top, and the whole thing gets steamed in a spicy sauce — milder than the stir-fry, with the nakji flesh coming out noticeably more tender. The bean sprouts, having soaked up the nakji's juices, add a nice crisp bite of their own. If spicy food is a bit much for you, nakji-jjim is the easier of the two to enjoy compared to nakji-bokkeum. Both dishes are common menu items along Romance Pocha Street and the downtown restaurant strip.

Octopus, Mild as Sukhoe, Hearty as Sam-hap

Octopus is bigger and meatier than nakji, so it gets treated differently in the kitchen too. The most basic preparation is octopus sukhoe: the whole octopus is boiled, then thinly sliced and dipped in chogochujang (vinegar-chili sauce). With no heavy seasoning involved, you get the octopus's natural clean flavor and chewy texture, unfiltered. Boil it too briefly and it's tough; too long and it turns dry and mealy — getting the timing just right is what separates a good octopus sukhoe from a mediocre one.

Octopus sam-hap brings several textures together on a single plate. Lightly blanched octopus is served alongside raw-sliced octopus, so the blanched side comes out tender while the raw side stays satisfyingly crunchy — you get to swing between two completely different textures within the same dish. If you spot a 'sam-hap' item on a menu along Romance Pocha Street or the local restaurant row, it's often built this way, so first-timers should feel free to ask the owner what exactly comes with it.

On Pocha Street, or at Gukdong Port Market

Nakji and octopus dishes make great drinking food along the night-sea Romance Pocha Street. Listen to the waves with a spicy nakji-bokkeum and a shot of soju, or a clean octopus sukhoe with a bottle of beer, and Yeosu's night gets a little deeper. If you'd rather pick out fresh seafood yourself during the day, heading over to the Gukdong Port fish market is another option. Plenty of shops there sell fresh catch direct, so you can look at the nakji or octopus that came in that day, pick your own, and have it prepared on the spot — raw, grilled, or in a stew.

Because it's a direct-sale market, the day's stock and pricing shift day to day, so checking on-site is the most reliable way to know the real cost. Still, the haggling and energy unique to a market like this is a kind of fun you don't get at a tourist-strip restaurant. Picking out your own nakji and octopus by eye is an experience that makes Yeosu's sea feel that much closer. Ordering the leftover parts to be simmered into a stew after eating some raw is a pretty common move around here too.

Another appeal of these two ingredients is that you get to try more of them when you're in a group rather than eating alone. Order nakji-bokkeum and octopus sukhoe together to share, and you can go back and forth between spicy and clean flavors at the same table. Yeosu locals tend to do exactly this when guests come to visit, ordering both to fill out a generous spread.

Nakji, a Traditional Strength Food. Octopus, a Year-Round Drinking Snack

There's an old saying about nakji: 'even an ox that's collapsed will get back up if you feed it nakji.' It reflects just how long nakji has been thought of as a strength-restoring food. Stories still circulate about Yeosu locals refueling with a plate of nakji after a hard day of farm or boat work. Even now, some people specifically seek out nakji-bokkeum or nakji-yeonpotang (nakji hotpot) when the summer heat leaves them drained, and that's likely this old belief still lingering.

Octopus is bigger and meatier than nakji, so a single one is plenty for a group to share. Maybe that's why it's loved as a year-round drinking snack, without much regard for season — light and refreshing in spring, paired with a hot broth dish in winter. If nakji's charm is its fiery kick, octopus's charm is quieter and longer-lasting. Try both, a day or two apart, while traveling Yeosu, and it's genuinely interesting to see how differently two ingredients from the same sea can show up on the table.

Neither nakji nor octopus swings dramatically with the seasons, so you can usually find both dishes no matter when you visit Yeosu. That said, the day's catch shifts with the tides and weather, so if you're hoping to land an especially plump one, it's worth checking a few different places and comparing. Whenever you're in Yeosu, these two dishes, nakji and octopus, are worth making a point to eat.