[Domestic Travel] Taean Pension, Places to Visit, Shellfish Experience, Shintae-ru

We decided on a trip on the spur of the moment and headed to Taean for a domestic getaway!!

Since Taean is not as far away as I thought, a lot of people even go there as a day trip from Seoul. We could also have gone on a day trip ourselves with the idea of just getting some fresh air, but since we had decided to go to Taean, I thought doing a shellfish experience would make the trip even more memorable.

I’d like to introduce a Taean trip you can take spontaneously as a domestic getaway.

Domestic Travel

There’s a saying that goes, “You should eat after seeing the Grand Himalayas”

We were going to eat clam dishes made with the clams we caught during the Taean shellfish experience, but since we had already made the trip all the way to Taean, I figured we should fill our stomachs first. Of course, that would also help us gather the energy to enthusiastically do the shellfish experience and dig up plenty of clams.

The place we visited was Shintae-ru, a famous jjambbong restaurant in Taean.

Taean Shintae-ru Chinese Restaurant

It has been featured on <Master of Living> for its 70-year tradition as a Chinese restaurant specializing in yuk- jjambbong, and on <6 o'clock My Hometown> for its jjajangmyeon segment.

Perhaps because so many people come here while traveling in Taean, it is closed every Tuesday.

It is open from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The person in charge of the kitchen at Shintae-ru started working there at age 13 and has 50 years of experience!! They say it has been a lifelong path dedicated to jjambbong.

It’s no wonder it tastes good!!

I heard that Shintae-ru’s jjambbong makes use of the characteristics of a coastal area by using fresh clams and meat served the same day. Maybe that’s why there were really a lot of clams in the jjambbong, and the rich, refreshing taste of the seafood broth definitely came through.

As you can see from the photo, there is no oil floating on the jjambbong at all. Because of that, while eating it, I could enjoy both a clean taste and a refreshing flavor at the same time, so I kept sipping the broth.

That said, since it’s a well-known restaurant and has been on TV, it was crowded with customers, so the food did take a while to come out considering it is a Chinese restaurant. Still, it was a wait that was manageable enough to sit through.

After finishing the jjambbong, it was time to check in, so we headed to the pension we had reserved.

Since the trip was mainly to spend one night for shellfish gathering in Taean, we booked a budget-friendly pension.

Even though it was affordable, we could still see the sea very well from the pension. The sea viewed from there looked so beautiful. The waves weren’t strong and were calm, which made me feel relaxed.

The reasonably priced Marina Beach Pension on this domestic Taean trip is located right in front of Mongsanpo Beach, so not only can you see the sea, but at night you can also hear the sound of the waves. That sound might feel scary to some, but I actually liked it.

We decided to go out for some fresh air as a change of pace, and that’s how this domestic trip came about on the spur of the moment!!

Among domestic destinations, Taean is doable as a day trip from the Seoul metropolitan area!!

Since we decided to stay one night, the tidal flat for our main purpose—tidal flat experience—is spread out right in front of us.

We need to work hard to dig up clams so that by dinner we can go back with the feeling that we really ate our fill of shellfish. The tidal flat experience turned out to be more fun than I expected.

I thought it would feel like hard labor, but it was fascinating when Lutraria clams popped out after adding salt, and it was also interesting to see clams appear as we dug through the mudflat. As the clams slowly piled up, I started feeling a sense of accomplishment, I guess. That made me want to keep going, just a little more and a little more.

After cleaning up after our tidal flat experience and washing the clams thoroughly so we could eat them deliciously, we started grilling the clams using the barbecue facilities provided at Marina Beach Pension.

Of course, we also arranged the tidal flat experience by asking the pension.

We placed the razor clams and white clams on the grill. As the razor clams cooked, the meat popped right out, so we just shelled them on the spot and ate them. Maybe because we had done the work ourselves and caught them ourselves, they tasted even better than the usual grilled shellfish, and the juices were so good that we kept eating them.

We couldn’t go all the way to Taean, catch shellfish, and come back having only eaten shellfish.

We ordered wild fresh fish sashimi from the sushi restaurant run directly by Marina Beach Pension. If we had had more time, I think we would have also tried sea fishing.

When you go shellfish gathering in Taean and show them to the pension, they separate which shellfish are best grilled and which are better cooked into dishes. In the case of dongjuk clams, I was told they taste good when steamed, so I requested a steamed dish.

I didn’t realize it while catching them, but seeing them in photos like this, we really did catch a lot of shellfish.

The amount of steamed dongjuk clams is enormous, and in addition, none of these were bought—we caught them all ourselves.

Even though it was a domestic trip we decided on at the last minute, Taean turned out to be an extremely successful trip ​