Specialty Dishes · Season 14 · Season of Summer VII

Mulhoe

Mulhoe (Cold Raw Fish Soup) · 물회

Difficulty: Medium
Time to plan: 25–30 min
Serves: 2 servings
Recipe: 5 steps
Listed places: 2

Food notes and context

This mulhoe combines uncooked fish, vegetables and a chilled tangy liquid. Unlike cooked fish stew, the addition of vinegar is not a heating step.

Ask which seafood and whether noodles or rice are included. If avoiding raw fish, choose a cooked fish dish instead of assuming extra noodles or rice change the raw preparation.

Cook this version

Images are AI-generated illustrations, not records of a kitchen test. Follow the written ingredients and steps. Ingredients and substitutions guide

Prep: 25–30 min
Cook: No cooking
Wait: None
Ready in: 25–30 min

The fish is raw. Keep fish prepared for raw consumption at 4°C/40°F or below, use potable water and ice, and serve immediately.

Ingredients (2 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitute abroad
Sashimi-grade fish (flounder, rockfish, squid)	300g	Salmon (a different grain of flavor)
Cucumber, cabbage, pear	A little each	Lettuce, perilla leaves
Gochujang	3 tbsp	Online Korean grocers
Vinegar, sugar, plum syrup	1-2 tbsp each	Lemon juice
Garlic and sesame	A little	Anywhere
Cold water or iced broth	2 cups	Naengmyeon broth
Somyeon or rice (finish)	As desired	Can skip

Step by step

1.Cut the fish
Keep fish handled for raw consumption at or below 4°C/40°F and cut it into thick strips on a board kept separate from the vegetables.
2.Julienne the vegetables
Cut cucumber, cabbage, and pear into fine strips.
3.Mix the sauce
Blend gochujang with vinegar, sugar, plum syrup, and garlic into a thick paste.
4.Toss, then pour
Toss fish and vegetables in the sauce, then pour in potable cold water or iced broth made from it. Serve immediately.
5.Drink and finish
Eat immediately, then stir noodles or rice into the last broth. Pregnant people, children, older adults, and immunocompromised diners should avoid raw fish and choose thoroughly cooked fish instead.

Measurement, doneness and storage references

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Places to check when planning a meal

Candidates to investigate for this food. Maps use sourced location records; confirm the current menu, opening and booking directly. This list is not a tasting review or an award certification.

Suhyang Hoesikdang

3 Jukdosijang 14-gil, Buk-gu, Pohang, North Gyeongsang

Exact current location is not verified here. Confirm the venue through its official information before planning a visit.

Pohang Jukdo Market

Pohang, North Gyeongsang

Exact current location is not verified here. Confirm the venue through its official information before planning a visit.

The fictional face of this dish

Metal element · an angular, solid face

You skip the long table setting and drink the sea from one bowl. A face like mulhoe, born on a boat deck.

Upright: Mulhoe was the meal fishermen drank standing at the gunwale. Spend time on formality and the next wave arrives. Do today's work deck-style: completion before polish.

Reversed: Drinking it down fast and gulping it carelessly are different things. Mulhoe flows only because the fish is fresh; eating something spoiled quickly is just an accident. Check the ingredients before you accelerate.

The K-Roast take: Grandma's roast

Fictional food metaphors inspired by traditional face-reading, not measurements of your face or personality.

Those quick eyes read the current like a fisherman's. Do you know how mulhoe was born? Mid-haul, with no time to set a meal, fishermen sliced the fresh catch, stirred it into gochujang and water, and drank it down. It became a legend by discarding formality. Your quickness is the same: while others set the table, you have already eaten and cast the net again. That speed is your livelihood, child.

That sleek jawline carries nothing extra. Look into a mulhoe bowl: fish, vegetables, sauce, water. Complete with only what is on the boat. Finishing with what you have instead of hunting for what you lack: that is a seaman's housekeeping and your work style. While others recite their list of missing supplies, you have already lifted the spoon.

That mouth drinks deep and clean: a broth-to-the-bottom mouth. Do you know how mulhoe ends? Rice or thin noodles stirred into the last of the broth until the bowl is empty. Sashimi to start, rice to finish: two meals drawn from one bowl. You too drink your projects down to the last broth, which is why nothing you handle leaves dregs.

Mulhoe is the story of a hungry fisherman's shortcut becoming the delicacy tourists queue for. The makeshifts your lean times invented will one day be your specialties too. Never be ashamed of deck wisdom.
Grandma's blessing

Table compatibility

Mulhoe and meongge, raw siblings of the sea, recognize each other on the summer harbor table, while boiling samgyetang preaches the exact opposite doctrine of surviving summer, and sharing a table turns into mutual missionary work.