Haemul-jeongol (Seafood Hot Pot)

Haemul-jeongol begins at the fish market, not at the stove. Buy what still smells clean and cold: crab heavy for its size, clams shut tight, shrimp with firm shells, squid with clear skin. If the market gives you poor seafood, don't force this dish. Cook something else. A jeongol has nowhere to hide a bad ingredient.

This is not jjigae. Jjigae often names one main ingredient and comes to the table already cooked; jeongol carries several ingredients arranged together and finishes in front of the people eating. That arrangement is not decoration. Napa cabbage and radish go underneath to sweeten the broth, seafood sits where everyone can reach it, mushrooms and minari give color and scent, and the broth rises through everything instead of beating it down.

My teacher made us place the raw pot twice before she let us light the burner. White squid, red crab, grey clam, brown mushroom, green minari. 눈동냥, 귀동냥, borrowing with the eyes and ears. You look first, then you cook. Pour in less broth than you think, because the seafood will give its own liquid, and season with restraint so each thing still tastes like itself.

Tonight this dish asks for attention, not difficulty. Pull the kelp before it turns bitter. Add seafood in the right order. Lift the octopus the moment it curls. 손맛 is real; I measure it anyway, so the next table can eat the same good pot.