Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Wide eyed wanderer]

Hey!

I found this forum had very little information about being a vegetarian when I was preparing to leave for Korea last year. So i wanted to write a post my experiences and hopefully this will help and future vegetarian going to Korea.

So I went to Korea, as a vegetarian (I even went vegan for a bit) and I did maintain my vegetarian, but....

Simply put, if you live in Seoul, it's quite easy to maintain your vegetarian diet, if not a little more pricey. In Seoul there are quite a few vegetarian/vegan restaurants and a foreigner vegetarian club and a Korean vegetarian club. If you live outside of Seoul then you will be hard pressed to maintain your diet, if you want to stay healthy, not to say it's impossible, you just better hope you are a really good cook who knows a lot about food!

I lived an hour outside of Seoul and I was constantly going into Seoul to the Foreign Food Market in Itaewon to buy beans and lentils that cost me a great deal of money. I met a lot of people in my city who were vegetarians and gave it up. In fact I started eating fish because if I ever wanted to eat out with friends it was very difficult to get a dish without any sort of meat. Sometimes Koreans give you weird looks to when you tell them you are a vegetarian (Korean word for vegetarian: Chae-shik-chewee). Oh and for some strange reason they don't seem to consider ham to be meat, there were countless times where I would explain in Korean that I am vegetarian or I don't eat meat and then I would get ham in my kim-bop. I started saying "I don't eat meat and I don't eat ham". My vegetarian Korean friend also suggested that I start telling the servers I was allergic and they would start taking me more seriously, before they would use beef broth or use animal fat in the ingredients.

Many people think if you cook at home you should have nothing to worry about. I always cooked at home, however many don't understand the vegetarian diet, no offense. To maintain a healthy vegetarian diet, a vegetarian doesn't just eat vegetables, fruit and grains they have to make sure they get a proper amount of protein and iron. Korea just typically provide the foods you would typically find in North America that is typically used to provide protein. Such as beans, lentils, tempeh... ect. They have tofu, lots of tofu, all kinds of tofu. However you can't rely on just one source of protein, your body needs other sources of protein, not to mention that if don't ferment your tofu properly your body has difficulty processing it.

I also went vegan for a bit, let me tell you it was very difficult! I could never eat out and I always had to eat at home or prepare food. Like I said before it wasn't easy finding ingredients with iron, protein, omega and other nutrients. Although others have done it and all the power to them!

I figured it would be easier to be vegetarian because there was a great deal of Buddhism in Asia. The fact is things are changing there is a lot of Christianity there and Buddhism wasn't as predominant as I thought. Even then a lot of the Korean friends I had who practiced Buddhism weren't vegetarians, they may have ate less meat then most but they still ate it. It seems only the monks really stick to a strict vegetarian diet and they cook for themselves in the temples and they don't exactly eat out regularly or shop in regular supermarkets.

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Resources for vegetarians:

You can search for vegan/vegetarian/veg-friendly restaurants:
http://www.happycow.net/

Phonetic vegetarian phrases in other languages:
http://www.hedweb.com/animals/vegphrase.htm

Foreigner Vegetarian club in Korea:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11299200065

Useful Phrases:

- vegetarian
채식주의
chae-shik-chewee

- I�m vegetarian.
저는 채식주의자입니다
chonun chae-sheek-chewee-ja imnida

- Does this food have any meat in it?
이 음식에 고기가 들어 있나요
e eumsige gogiga duleo itnayo?

- I don�t eat (meat).
저는 (고기를) 안 먹어요
chonun (gogirul) an mogoyo.

You can substitue the word in brakets with these words:
o chicken: 닭고기 (dalk gogi)
o pig meat: 돼지고기 (tweiji gogi)
o ham: 햄 (hem)
o seafood: 해물 (haemul)
o fish: 물고기 (mulgogi)
o all kinds of meat: 모둔 종규 고기 (modun chongnyu gogi)

Hope this helps!! Stay strong!! Don't give up, we need you!!

Haha!!

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

nicedeli.com delivers beans and other necessities for vegetarians who can't make it to the foreign food market.

I've also ordered quinoa from iherb.com (in California, but they ship), so it isn't impossible, just expensive and a tad more difficult than back home.

[misschel]

This is a great post!
If you are a vegetarian, I'd recommend writing those phrases down to help when ordering food.
I've always been amazed how I can say I'm a vegetarian and that I don't want any meat (in Korean) and STILL get some type of meat on my pizza. It's like they don't really believe that you don't actually want it and put it on because they know better. So strange!
I've been in Korea for almost 2 years and have stuck with vegetarianism. It's really not that hard. If the reasons you gave up eating meat are strong enough, then there's no reason to quit just because it's harder than your home country. With that said, I'm excited to get back to Canada and explore the grocery store for all the amazing veggie options!

[le-paul]

Although I think it is very nice of you to take the time to write a post explaining how to be a vegetarian in korea. You seem to be quite a little bit misinformed yourself.

Heres why;

It isnt difficult for a vegetarian to get iron.
One bowl of bran flakes and some broccoli for lunch isn�t too short of the RDA (10/15g).

Outside of seoul there are a lot of places that cater for vegetarians (or at least serve vegi food). In the sticks maybe not but in the cities, yes. In daegu I know of at least 3 restaurants that advertise as being vegetarian. Anyway, its always possible to get u-dong or pajong (to name 2 things off the top of my head) without anything 'extra' added to it if youre hungry.

It is also very easy to find vegetarian ingredients in the bigger marts. In my local supermarket for example (emart/homeplus), I have 5 varieties of high protein vegetarian sausage as well as baked beans and about 25 varities of beans (dried) etc etc.

Koreans all have different perceptions of what meat is. Some people for example don�t consider pig or fish as meat. You have to be specific when ordering not just saying � �im a vegetarian� (youre a what?) or �don�t put meat in this�.
That is just ignorant not to expect some form of animal in your food by saying that.

Korean tofu (while being high-ish in protein) is made partially from rennet. Being a vegetarian you should know that rennet is a gelling agent made from cow bone marrow � its not vegetarian and neither is Korean tofu. Don�t recommend to people to eat this if they are vegetarian.

Protein � I was 92 kg last year of muscle. I got that on a vegetarian diet - in korea.
Everything has protein in it. All life forms are made from protein. While cows have more stomachs than us, they get as big as they do of muscle by eating only grass. Its not difficult to get protein as a vegetarian unless you want to have Ronnie Colemans' legs.

Like I say, I think its nice of you to take the time to post this but you really should do your homework a little bit more.

[Crockpot2001]

Let's look up phytates and your Fe+ recommendations. An orange might make a nice addition.

[le-paul]

thats why I said cows had more stomachs - I was taking that into account and didnt want to get into a diatribe about cows digestive systems.
My point was, its possible to get protein from anything - even grass (if you have the right means).

I see I wrote 'g' instead of 'mg' - force of habit. Thank you for pointing that out.

Anyway, heres a list of RDA for iron:

Infants, Children
7 to 12 months: 11 mg
1 to 3 years: 7 mg
4 to 8 years: 10 mg Males
9 to 13 years: 8 mg
14-18 years: 11 mg
19-50 years: 8 mg
51+ years: 8 mg Females
9 to 13 years: 8 mg
14-18 years: 15 mg
19-50 years: 18 mg
51+ years: 8 mg Pregnancy
14-18 years: 27 mg
19-50 years: 27 mg
Lactation
14-18 years: 10 mg
19-50 years: 9 mg



and a list of mg per 100mg in vegetables

mg

Soybeans, cooked 1 cup 8.8
Blackstrap molasses 2 Tbsp 7.2
Lentils, cooked 1 cup 6.6
Spinach, cooked 1 cup 6.4
Quinoa, cooked 1 cup 6.3
Tofu 4 ounces 6.0
Bagel, enriched 3 ounces 5.2
Tempeh 1 cup 4.8
Lima beans, cooked 1 cup 4.4
Swiss chard, cooked 1 cup 4.0
Black beans, cooked 1 cup 3.6
Pinto beans, cooked 1 cup 3.5
Turnip greens, cooked 1 cup 3.2
Chickpeas, cooked 1 cup 3.2
Potato 1 large 3.2
Kidney beans, cooked 1 cup 3.0
Prune juice 8 ounces 3.0
Beet greens, cooked 1 cup 2.7
Tahini 2 Tbsp 2.7
Veggie hot dog 1 hot dog 2.7
Peas, cooked 1 cup 2.5
Black-eyed peas, cooked 1 cup 2.3
Cashews 1/4 cup 2.1
Brussels sprouts, cooked 1 cup 1.9
Bok choy, cooked 1 cup 1.8
Bulgur, cooked 1 cup 1.7
Raisins 1/2 cup 1.6
Almonds 1/4 cup 1.5
Apricots, dried 15 halves 1.4
Veggie burger, commercial 1 patty 1.4
Watermelon 1/8 medium 1.4
Soy yogurt 6 ounces 1.1
Tomato juice 8 ounces 1.0
Green beans, cooked 1 cup 1.2
Kale, cooked 1 cup 1.2
Sunflower seeds 1/4 cup 1.2
Broccoli, cooked 1 cup 1.1
Millet, cooked 1 cup 1.1
Sesame seeds 2 Tbsp 1.0

[drydell]