Korean Job Discussion Forums

[caro188]

Hi!
I've been hearing great things about Bibimbop and Kimchi and would love to know how to make these dishes gluten free! Thanks!

[Gibberish]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gluten+free+korean+food

[ChilgokBlackHole]

Kimchi is red pepper flakes, fish sauce, and salt on whatever you put into it. There are as many ways to make kimchi as there are people who make it.

As for the rest, I'm trying really hard to think of things.. You're talking about wheat products, right? Because I saw in another thread where one guy was talking about glutenous rice having actual gluten in it, and he's just wrong.

All your soups and such don't have wheat in them. Unless you're eating noodles. Anyhow, the starches in the average Korean's diet are going to be:

1. Rice
2. Potatoes

So really... look at any Korean food recipe site (there are a bunch) and you can see what's up.

And Gibberish... That's not very helpful, dude.

[curiousaboutkorea]

looking through this list, only a few items raise flags
http://www.the-gluten-free-chef.com/foods-containing-gluten.html

Luncheon meat (in the form of spam) is fairly common here, sometimes in soup of gimbap.
Imitation crab meat (and possibly some fish cakes maybe, though not mentioned on the list) are to be found. Imitation crabmeat is used in gimbap. Fishcakes are found in many things.

Instant coffee is VERY common here. If someone like a coworker gives you a little paper cup of coffee, it's almost sure to be instant.

Brown rice syrup is used, I see it in the supermarkets. I'm not sure exactly what they use it for.

Soy sauce is used. You usually don't taste the soy sauce (like you might with Chinese food). It's added in small amounts to some dishes. From a little wikipedia, it seems that Korean soy sauce doesn't use wheat (it's a by-product of doenjang-fermented soybean paste). However, other kinds of soy sauce are more common (and therefore probably have wheat).

Korean "curry" might have it, but is easily avoided.

They use some white pepper as well (I had no idea this would contain flour, but seems that the powder may be bulked up with it).

[Son Deureo!]

Just want to clear up some misinformation here.

[benji1422]

I shop gluten and grain free and I often shop at the Korean markets where I read every ingredient. I shop in LA so everything is translated into English and wheat, corn starch is in everything.

So I pretty much only stick to whole foods - fruit, vegetables, fish meat. I avoid everything else.

SOY SAUCE has wheat. So does GOCHUJANG. All processed, pacakaged and frozen foods (mando) have wheat, corn starch, and MSG or a combination of the above.

If you are gluten free you will have to discard anything with soy sauce or gochujang -- which means bibimbap, most soups, etc.

If you cook at home you can avoid this by getting a wheat-free soy sauce. I don't know of a brand in Korea but you will have to ask around.

If you order from a restaurant expect to be laughed at/questioned. Better to just avoid .

Also when you order KBBQ, all of the marinades in kalbi have soy sauce (which has wheat). So you must order a non-marinated meat or eat samgyupsal. When I eat Korean food I pretty much stick to 1) non-marinated meat 2) kimchi and vegetables that are fermented in vinegar and not soy sauce.

Dwaenjang and other popular products are processed with wheat as a thickening agent so I would avoid. Better to get these things from someone who is making it homemade. But if you buy any processed sauces (dwanjang, gochu, KBBQ sauce curry sauce etc) from the market, you can be 90% it has some wheat in it.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

Find a substitute for the barley powder and omit the soy, and you can eat this:

[Dazed and Confused]

[quote="ChilgokBlackHole"]
All your soups and such don't have wheat in them. Unless you're eating noodles. .[/quote]

Most Korean soups have some gluten in them because it is added to the gochujang and the twenjang.

Unless you buy it in the traditional market from the little lady who made it herself you're SOL.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[curiousaboutkorea]

From what little research I've done, the real-deal traditional doenjang (and therefore Korean-style soy sauce) and gochujang don't contain gluten (by means of wheat). However, regular factory-made stuff does, which is what is almost always used.

I'm sure with a bit of looking you can find some doenjang and gochujang which don't (probably expensive), though you'll be hard-pressed to find a restaurant that uses it.