From July to August, dagger-tooth pike conger is in season along the south coast. Among food lovers, the term "hamo" is more familiar than dagger-tooth pike conger.
There are three types of eel commonly eaten in Korea. Freshwater eel (Japanese eel), famous as Pungcheon eel, conger eel known as "anago," and dagger-tooth pike conger. You could say "there is also hagfish," but hagfish is a jawless primitive vertebrate and belongs to a completely different group from other eels.
Dagger-tooth pike conger is a marine fish in the order Anguilliformes and the family Muraenesocidae. It lives among sand or rocks in shallow seas and is nocturnal. From May to about October, it is caught by bottom longline (longline) in southern sea waters (around Jangheung, Goheung, Yeosu, Namhae, Sacheon, and Goseong). In this region, it is also called "true eel."
It closely resembles conger eel in appearance, but the snout area differs. The conger eel has a rounded snout, while the dagger-tooth pike conger's is pointed.
With a large mouth and well-developed, sharp fangs reminiscent of a dog's teeth, it was once called "dog eel." In Jasan Eobo written by Jeong Yak-jeon, the fish appears under the name "Gyeonaryeo (犬牙鱺)." It means "an eel with dog's teeth." The common term "hamo" also derives from the Japanese word "kamu (かむ)," meaning "to bite."
Afterward, the name "gaetjang-eo" (dagger-tooth pike conger) took hold among the public. Rather than being a natural alteration of "dog eel," it was intended to mean an eel that lives by the seaside (gaetga) and to distinguish it from freshwater eel.
▲ A National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives video introducing dagger-tooth pike conger. Yeosu, Goseong, and Tongyeong are known as major producing areas for the fish. /Courtesy of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives
Jasan Eobo records that dagger-tooth pike conger "was used as a remedy for back pain and tasted good, so people enjoyed eating it." But except in the southern coastal region, other areas shunned it, saying it was "a snake that had transformed."
During the Japanese colonial period, most dagger-tooth pike conger caught in Korea was exported to Japan. At the center was Japan's fisheries king "Nakabe Ikujiro." Based in Naro Island in Goheung and in Ulsan, Nakabe made a fortune exporting mackerel and dagger-tooth pike conger caught in the seas near the Korean Peninsula. Nakabe later became the foundation of Japan's largest fisheries company, "Maruha Nichiro."
At this time, the Japanese authorities designated dagger-tooth pike conger as a "regulated fish species," controlling fishing operations. They also reportedly blocked the transfer of processing techniques to Korea.
Distribution of dagger-tooth pike conger in Korea picked up in the late 1990s. In particular, the spread in Korea of the Kansai-style preparation of briefly blanching cleaned fish in hot water, "hamo yubiki" (dagger-tooth pike conger shabu-shabu), served as the catalyst.
When you blanch cleaned dagger-tooth pike conger fillets in hot broth, the gelatin in the skin contracts from the heat. At the same time, the flesh attached to the skin opens along the knife cuts and turns like a flower bud. After blanching for about 10 seconds, placing the fish on raw onion and eating it in one bite is exquisite.
Eel is a popular ingredient year-round, but it is especially good as a summer stamina food. That is because as much as 67% of its nutrients are protein, making it a high-protein ingredient.