Dongcheon Sikdang 동천식당

Dongcheon Sikdang is a Korean restaurant on Dongbu-daero in Samdong-myeon, Namhae, serving the anchovy dishes associated with the island as well as shared hot pots. Myeolchi ssambap cooks plump whole anchovies and vegetables in a shallow layer of spicy, salty red seasoning. A spoonful of rice and a piece of the braised fish are folded into fresh lettuce. The leaf and plain rice absorb the concentrated sauce, while the anchovy remains soft with the fine texture of its small bones. Anchovy hoe muchim takes a distinctly different approach. Uncooked anchovies and vegetables are tossed in a tangy red dressing, keeping the dish cool and crisp instead of soft and simmered. The first anchovy ssambap set contains the braised anchovies, hoe muchim, leafy wraps, rice, and soup. A second set adds grilled fish. The grilled fish arrives as a separate whole or cut section whose flesh is lifted from the browned skin, bringing dry heat to a table otherwise centered on braising and dressed raw fish. Bulgogi-and-octopus hot pot combines thin beef, one octopus, several mushrooms, water parsley, glass noodles, and broth. The beef cooks quickly and stays soft, the octopus retains a springier bite when cut into pieces, and the noodles take on the seasoned liquid. Seafood hot pot moves the focus from beef to shellfish and other marine ingredients. Beef-offal hot pot uses fattier, chewier pieces and creates a richer broth than the bulgogi version. Individual earthenware seafood stew, braised hairtail, kimchi jjigae, soft-tofu jjigae, and doenjang jjigae provide single-vessel alternatives to the large shared pots. The banchan spread can include young-radish kimchi, napa kimchi, stir-fried sweet-potato stems, seasoned mung-bean jelly, dressed cucumber, tiny stir-fried anchovies, fish cake, and dressed bok choy. Fermented cabbage, slippery jelly, crisp cucumber, and fibrous stems each interrupt the dense braising sauce in a different way. The dining room continues beyond the first seating area into an inner section, with tables broad enough for the ssambap trays or a hot-pot burner. Anchovies appear in three separate forms on one set: whole fish softened in hot seasoning, cool raw fish in a sour dressing, and small dried fish stir-fried as a side dish. The menu also supplies beef, octopus, offal, shellfish, hairtail, and tofu for diners choosing outside the anchovy-centered meal.