Eating with Seoul: a vegans guide to surviving in South Korea.

It’s no secret that following a plant based diet in Korea hasn’t been the easiest of things. It’s the land of the meat eating, BBQ loving, fried chicken partying. Korea and ‘vegan’ do not usually come hand-in-hand; it was difficult and daunting arriving in a foreign country with this extra obstacle to overcome. But fear not my fellow vegan explorers – Korea is not a total meat frenzy. As I approach the one year mark, I’ve found some awesome vegan havens, some quirky alternatives to traditional cuisine and a few useful phrases – so here’s my guide for surviving in Korea on a plant based diet.  

Delicious offerings from the streets of Hoi An

Along the ancient streets of Hoi An, is the vibrant farmers market; a place where women in leaf hats barter with customers and chat to locals. Small mountains of exotic fruits and vegetables brighten up the surroundings and fresh sugar cane is pulped in to juice.  Vietnamese cuisine is some of the best I’ve had – the streets are crawling with authentic food and cooking classes are widely available so you can master the local specialities. 

A vegetarian in Mangwon; exploring Seoul’s new hipster hangout.

Past the street merchants and western style cafés of Noksapyeong, we came over the horizon onto Itaewon-ro, to the sound of a thumping baseline and hordes of people. We’d accidentally arrived on the day of the annual Global Village Festival; a weekend-long celebration of international cuisines, music, fashion and crafts. But this wasn’t the hidden gem of the weekend.

Eating with Seoul; a vegan festival

After the painless Saturday morning operation of moving to a new apartment, less than 200m from our school, Molly and I ventured north of the Han River to the annual vegan festival held in the Seoul Innovation Park. Nestled at the foot of the Bukhansan National Park is a centre for stimulating the creative economy with consideration to social and environmental issues – a perfect place to hold a vegan festival.

Sassy Flea Market in Spontaneous Seoul

The variety of Seoul never ceases to amaze me. Take this morning for instance; whilst I was eating my PB & J, Charlie stumbled upon an Instagram post from a favourite brewery of ours, saying they had a pop-up stall at a ‘flea market’ in the car park of a swanky Gangnam hotel – very Korean.

The One at the Beach

Two little words have the power to brighten up any teacher or students week; summer vacation. I am once again in the education sector and delighted to be cashing in on those sunny days off.

Beers, Bakeries and Bamboo Massages.

It’s not all fun and games.

Konglish

We’re official aliens, hoorah. We have received our Alien Registration Cards and are fully-fledged foreign teachers in Korea. Contrary to the name, this means we can now explore more of this incredible country and the local delicacies.

Arrival in Korea.

Anyong Haseyo!

After a couple of weeks, we are finally settled in to our new lives in South Korea. We are living in an apartment in Gwangju-si, Gyeonggido (a providence just outside of Seoul), with our academy right around the corner.