Meet All the Specialties of Sokcho!

Welcome to the biggest market in Sokcho! This is Sokcho Central, or Jungang Market. It sprang out amid the Korean War in 1953 when the refugees, soldiers, and local people simply came to live together. It ended up with two names when the new title “Sokcho Tour & Fisheries Market” came to be selected after a naming contest held back in 2005.
The market is a popular place that won the Presidential Award for the “Best Traditional Market” in 2017. The market consists of alleys of seafood vendors, restaurants, and a raw fish center at the underground level. On the second floor, there are clothing shops and other facilities for everyday services for local residents of Sokcho.
The hot spots for tourists are the raw fish center and the food alley. The merchants in the raw fish center underground keep their seafood fresh in facilities that bring in pure seawater. Unquestionably, raw fish is the freshest, and you can enjoy spicy and sour cold raw fish soups. The food alley is filled with famous local delicacies: like stuffed squid, fermented righteye flounder, and millet pancake. Also, whether it is a king crab or red crab, or other seafood, you can have them fried, steamed, or fermented. There are also popular restaurants on social media that serve sweet and sour chicken, or Dak gangjeong, sweet rice punch, and mega gimbap.
Inevitably, eating and sightseeing can make you tired, so go up to the second floor toward the clothing shops, and you will see a resting place. Eating is not allowed in that section, but the market officials hold various events for visitors so you may just get lucky.