Seafood Ramen at Jungmun Oppane in Jeju
After having a few drinks last night, I woke up craving some hangover food. Seafood ramen and bomaljuk (sea snail porridge) came to mind, but I was leaning toward something spicy, so I settled on seafood ramen. I remembered a place I saw on TV where they catch the octopus themselves, and another spot with terrible service but food so good you forget all about it. But they seemed a bit too far from Jungmun (a tourist resort area in Jeju), and while I was hesitating, I spotted exactly one seafood ramen shop right in Jungmun. I headed over to 'Jungmun Seafood Ramen Oppane,' a place with a massive number of reviews on Naver.
When I got near, the street was already lined with parked cars. Since I came around brunch time, the surrounding shops were completely empty, but this was the only place packed to the brim. I got really lucky—a table opened up as soon as I walked in, and I sat by the window with a nice view outside. Even though I was just watching cars go by, the weather was so beautiful that even that put me in a good mood.
I decided on the seafood ramen, my friend got the kkogiramen (meat ramen), and we agreed to share the abalone cheese rice. We paid upfront and sat down. At 15,000 KRW per dish, it felt a bit pricey. Sure, we come from Seoul where you easily pay 20,000 KRW just for an assorted tonkatsu, but this is Jeju. Since almost all the ingredients are locally sourced, the high price made me tilt my head a little.
After we ordered, a fire show started in the kitchen. They weren't just heating things up; they were vigorously tossing ingredients in a wok. Seeing that, I figured it would at least taste pretty decent.
The food came out on a tray, along with a comment from the staff that taking photos with the tray makes it look more appetizing. They also mentioned they give out freebies if you leave a Naver review. 'Ah! So this is why they have so many reviews!' I thought to myself as I snapped some photos and took a closer look. First off, the seafood ramen was absolutely loaded with ingredients. There was a whole octopus, what looked like a whole crab, and two plump shrimp. The meat ramen was also so packed with meat that I worried how we'd manage to eat the rice.
They claim the seafood ramen is made without instant ramen powder or capsaicin, but it tasted like ramen powder. It starts with that powder flavor and finishes with a clean seafood taste. In a way, it could be considered a bit bland. Honestly, whether they used ramen powder or not isn't the point. Even while suspecting, 'I think they put ramen powder in this,' I kept slurping the broth. The refreshing umami finish is nice, but the initial taste is a bit awkward.
After tasting the broth, it was time for the seafood. I started with the mussels and crab, but looking back, I ate them in the wrong order. You should cut the octopus first and eat it with the noodles. Because I waited to eat the noodles and octopus, the noodles lost their flavor and the octopus lost its chewiness. If you visit, I highly recommend inhaling the octopus and noodles first, and picking at the mussels and crab in between. If the noodles still taste bad after that, then they're just bad.
If the seafood ramen is refreshing, the meat ramen is rich and greasy. If you usually cure your hangovers with gamjatang (pork bone stew) or pho, you will absolutely love this. Maybe because it's packed with so many ingredients, the broth is even more impressive than the seafood ramen's. If you're going for broth flavor, the meat ramen is much better.
The hidden gem of this restaurant is the abalone cheese rice. Kids would probably love it. Even at a glance, you can tell they didn't hold back on the abalone. It looks like one or two whole abalones went into it. Just scoop up a spoonful, and it's studded with abalone pieces. It's on a completely different level from the abalone porridge in Seoul, where you practically need a microscope to find the abalone.
Even so, I felt a bit disappointed as I kept eating, because the cheese and butter aromas were so strong that I couldn't taste the abalone at all. Maybe the solution was simple: it tasted better when I scraped off the cheese and just ate the rice. It felt like they tried so hard to make it good by throwing in lots of ingredients, but it just turned into butter rice.
It feels like a place that doesn't skimp on ingredients, matching its price. Maybe this is just how Jeju is, but to a city slicker from Seoul like me, it felt like they just dumped ingredients in. If this were Seoul, Gyeongsang, or Jeolla province, they would have used a strong sauce to make it more stimulating, so the lack of that felt a bit lacking. But because of that, it's easy on the stomach. Finishing a whole bowl didn't feel heavy. I thought the cheese flavor in the abalone cheese rice was too strong, but to really bring out the abalone flavor, they would have had to grind up a lot more abalone. So I figure they just provided the texture of the abalone as an alternative.
I'm a bit torn on whether to call this a "must-eat" restaurant or not. The ingredients are excellent and generous, but if the cooking technique improves a bit, it could be a much better place. It just lacks that mind-blowing, electrifying flavor.
Well, I'm sure they've thought about it a lot more than someone like me who can't even cook.