Hongdaepo 홍대포

Hongdaepo is a seafood-hot-pot restaurant at 6-1 Gamchu-ro in Donghae, Gangwon Province, serving haecheon-tang and haesin-tang. Haecheon-tang places live octopus, abalone, scallops, mussels, and a large chicken in one pot. Haesin-tang uses small octopus as its defining cephalopod instead. Salt and shellfish aroma from the sea ingredients combine with chicken stock, producing broth that is refreshing yet peppery. When the octopus legs, shells, and abalone are cooked, a staff member cuts them into manageable pieces at the table and dismantles larger crustaceans. Octopus is best separated while still resilient, before prolonged boiling firms it. Chicken becomes softer as it absorbs the mixed broth. Those ingredients consequently reach desirable textures at different points within the same pot. Continued boiling concentrates both seafood and poultry flavor. Kalguksu noodles form the next course. Flour starch clouds and thickens the previously clear broth, so tasting or setting aside some liquid before adding noodles preserves a comparison between the two states. After the noodles, rice can be cooked into porridge, turning the reduced liquid and grains into the thickest final stage. Pan-fried tofu and seasoned cockles appear before the large pot is ready, supplying a browned soybean surface and chewy shellfish with seasoning. Extra scallops increase both the amount of shellfish flesh and marine aroma released from the shells. A medium pot has fed four adults, while a larger group can divide two pots or compare the octopus and small-octopus versions. The spacious room accommodates family tables with a central vessel, side plates, scissors, noodles, and porridge ingredients. This Donghae restaurant is separate from the business with the same name in Seoul's Mapo area. Its meal follows a specific progression rather than ending with the first seafood serving: resilient octopus and shellfish, broth-soaked chicken, increasingly concentrated soup, flour noodles, and rice porridge. Each step changes the liquid while retaining the combined base of sea and land ingredients.