Whiparm Octopus, the ginseng in the mud flat
One of representative product of Mokpo is Whiparm Octopus. Whiparm Octopus means it has fine legs. The Whiparm Octopus is small and you can eat by winding with wood chopstick or making a soup of octopus. In general, octopus are caught in the west coast and southern coast but Whiparm Octopus are caught only in the area of Mokpo, Youngam, Mooan, Shinan etc which is local special product. Besides eating the raw octopus by winding, there are 13 kinds of eating method of octopus such as yeonpo soup, seasoned raw octopus, Galnak soup, mixed rice with octopus etc.
Octopus is called also 'ginseng in the mud flat' which means good for heath as mentioned in [Jasanobo] by Jeong Yak-Jeon saying "if three or four octopus are provided to skinny ox, he will be strong immediately.". Among the seafood of octopus family, Whiparm Octopus has the most taurin ingredient covering 34% of whole nutrition factors of octopus. The reason why octopus is chosen as the best stamina food among seafood is the taurin ingredient. The taurin of octopus is high protein nutrition food that resolve the cholesterol. So, the efficiency of octopus is appreciated highly as much as one octopus is worth of 1kg of ginseng.
- Whiparm Octopus
- Stir-fried octopus
- Octopus Stick
Features of Whiparm Octopus
- Mokpo (Shinan, Mooan) octopus has long and fine legs.
- Regardless of size, the taste is mild, simple and aromatic.
- There is a little difference depending on the mud flat but it has light gray or dark gray.