Guryongpo Gwamegi

Gwamegi is made by hanging saury - or, traditionally, herring - outdoors through the winter at Guryongpo, where the sea wind is cold and dry, and leaving it to freeze at night and thaw by day for a week or more. It is not fully dried: the flesh stays soft and dark, the oil concentrates, and the flavour becomes strong and distinctly fishy in a way that divides people sharply. It is eaten raw, wrapped in seaweed or lettuce with garlic, chilli, raw onion and doenjang, and drunk with soju. The season is strictly winter - the process needs the cold - and the port is full of drying racks from November. Guryongpo also has a preserved street of Japanese-era wooden houses from when it was a colonial fishing base, kept as a historical district, which is an unusual thing to find in Korea and worth the walk while you are there.

What you actually see

• The drying racks - saury hung through the winter along the port.
• The freeze-thaw method - a week or more of cold nights and mild days.
• The wrapped serving - seaweed, garlic, chilli, doenjang, soju.
• The Japanese-era street - the preserved colonial fishing district.

When to go

November to February - it does not exist outside winter. The racks are fullest in December and January.

Honest expectations

The flavour is strong and oily and many first-time eaters dislike it; this is not a gentle introduction to Korean seafood. Strictly seasonal. Guryongpo is a small port with limited English.

Nearby

Homigot lighthouse and the Space Walk sculpture are in Pohang.