MiYuk Season
It’s Miyuk season in Korea. And Seafood to Koreans means more than just fish or shellfish. Anything that comes out of the ocean is seafood including Miyuk, a large aquatic plant.
On May 7th/8th we went to my mother’s house for “Parent’s Day.” Usually, we just hang around the house, but since it was harvest time for miyuk, mother-in-law was busy for a good portion of the weekend.
Miyuk is a seaweed that figures very prominently in a typical Korean diets. Sometimes, it is merely a side dish that can be prepared in many ways with garlic, red pepper and fish sauce. The most famous, however, is Miyuk Guk – Seaweed Soup. This is a traditional dish for birthdays. Sure, everyone gets a cake on their birthday – but that’s a western tradition that was imported. Koreans also have seaweed soup for breakfast on their birthday. Post-partum women will also eat large quantities of the soup in the first few weeks after giving birth. In fact, after my dog had her pups she was given several helpings of MiyukGuk and rice to help her recover her strength. I’ve even become a fan of MiyukGuk as well.
Loaded with vitamins and minerals, seaweeds like Miyuk are very healhful. For those who don’t have relatives on the shore, it can be bought in most stores. About 250-500 grams will cost about 2000won.
These pictures below are at a fishing village where my mother in law lives. This village, DuWeon, is just north of GyeongJu city limits and just inside the far southern city limits of PoHang. Click on a picture for a larger view
- Miyuk first must be unravelled from the pile and laid out straight on screens. Roots and large stalks are cut off
- The entire fishing village is busy harvesting, sorting, drying during the spring season
- Once a screen is filled, it is propped up to dry in the sun
- This screen is full and will be left for several days to dry
- My dogs play near a half dozen already drying screens of miyuk
- Another boat with a load of miyuk arrives from seaweed beds outside the small harbor
- This man has his boatload ready to be taken in and cleaned, separated and dried
- By boat or by merely swmming out to a bed of seaweed, loads of it are brought ashore