Nakji-bokkeum낙지볶음

Nakji (낙지), the long-armed small octopus, went by many names in old texts, including seokgeo (石距), sopalchoeo (小八梢魚) and nakje (絡蹄). It thrives in the tidal mudflats of the southwest coast, and more than 80 percent of Korea's nakji catch comes from the waters of South Jeolla Province. Folk belief has long treated it as an energy-restoring food, to the point of a saying that it can revive even a dying ox, and around Mokpo it is nicknamed "the ginseng of the mudflats."

Stir-fried and fiercely spicy, nakji-bokkeum made its name in downtown Seoul. In the 1960s octopus restaurants sprang up in Seorin-dong near Gwanghwamun, and as office workers from the neighboring Mugyo-dong area flocked to them, the dish became known as "Mugyo-dong nakji." When redevelopment and subway construction began in Jongno in the early 1980s, many of these restaurants moved to Cheongjin-dong and nearby streets, but "Mugyo-dong nakji" lived on as a byword for tear-inducingly hot octopus.

Nakji with especially thin arms are called sebal nakji. Despite how it sounds, the name has nothing to do with three (se) legs: it comes from se (細), meaning thin. They are not a separate species but ordinary nakji that grew differently. They are caught in large numbers around Mokpo and have long been prized above all others.