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Dish guide · Seafood

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Galchi-jorim

갈치조림

Spicy braised hairtail

♨️ Served hot🌶🌶 Spicy🥬 Not vegetarian

Hairtail, a long silver fish, simmered in a spicy sauce with radish. It's a Jeju specialty and the star of Seoul's Namdaemun Market hairtail alley.

What it is

  • The fish is braised with radish, potato or pumpkin in a red sauce, and it's served with plenty of white rice.
  • Jeju also has galchi-guk, a clear hairtail soup with pumpkin and greens that's a local hangover cure, and much lighter than the braise.
  • Grilled hairtail, galchi-gui, is another common order.

Styles & local versions

Gaori-jjim (braised skate)가오리찜

In Sokcho, skate is braised fresh rather than dried, so the flesh is soft. It's cooked with potato and radish in a sweet, spicy red sauce and ordered by the number of people. Save some sauce to mix with rice.

How to eat it

  1. 1Lift the flesh off the bones with chopsticks, then spoon the sauce over rice.
  2. 2Watch out for fine bones.

History

  • Namdaemun Market in Seoul has a whole alley of small restaurants specializing in it, while Jeju, where hairtail is caught, is its other home.

Allergies and diet

Usually contains

fishsoy
  • The sauce may contain anchovy stock or fish sauce.
  • Gaori-jjim is skate, a fish.

Recipes differ between restaurants. If you have an allergy, always ask the staff before you order.

🗣️ Allergy card for the staff

Pick your allergy to see the sentence in Korean.

📍 Where to try it

Sources

We check every fact against at least two sources and write it in our own words. Last checked: 2026-11-04.