Eating in Korea can be a headache at times.
Especially so, if you can't read korean.
At times like this, I'm forever grateful to have attended basic korean lessons at NTU.
Finding a place to eat during our first week with C's family was difficult, as his mom's a vegeterian.
So places that we dine at must has food for vegeterian and carnivorous humans like us (⌒_⌒;)
Throughout the first week when travelling with C's family, the sentences that I use at every meal will be
"Is this vegeterian?"
or
"Is there meat in this? Can you remove it?"
Learn it here: http://www.sweetandtastytv.com/blog/korean-phrases-for-vegetarians-and-vegans
Somehow, it seems that they don't really understand the expression 채식 음식(vegeterian food)?
Whenever I ask for it, they will be giving a puzzled look, or take some time to understand?
Now, going on to the restaurants that we went in Korea.
Gogung(古宫)
This was our first meal after reaching Seoul. We were't very hungry since we had breakfast at the airport just about 2 hours ago.
We ordered a meal for 2 and an additional Jeonju Bibimbap to share.
However, this came with heavy negotiation with the restaurant who wanted us to order a 5 person share before we were allowed what we intended to order.
This is when we realized Seoul is not exactly friendly to sharing food,
Strictly 1 person to a serving.
Gogung is apparently known for traditional Jeonju Bibimbao
But I don't remember it tasting any different from the bibimbap that you can taste anywhere on the streets.
The Jeonju Bibimbap doesn't contain any meat, so it's suitable for vegeterians.
Can't remember the name for this, but it tasted like bulgogi with mushrooms.
Came with the set for 2 person.
Jeonju Bibimbap
Banchan (Side dishes)
Mostly suitable for vegeterians.
Makgeolli (Rice Wine) pictured at the back which came with the set.
Bibigo
There's Bibigo in SG too, but we've never tried it!
We went to the branch at Gangnam!
It just happened that when we were there, they were having this special menu that has food for vegeterians!(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧
But sadly, I have no photos of it...
After deciding on what you want, proceed to the cashier and place your order.
Carry your tray with the side dishes back.
The staff will deliver the food to you.
Prices were resonable!
8000W for a Yukgaejang (Spicy Beef Soup)!
According to C, the meat was never-ending.（‐＾▽＾‐）
Tosokchon
It took us quite awhile to find this place cause we took a wrong turn after exiting.
It's actually pretty simple, but I can't give any directions because I'm bad at it. Sobz ●︿●
I believe you can find it online or get the address and Google Maps it!
Tosokchon is the famous place to have Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken)!
Read online that their standards have been dropping, but if you have never tried ginseng chicken before, it's best to try somewhere known!
This was their menu.
Poor C mama could only ask for seafood pancake without seafood.
But the pancake was hugeeeeeee!
So it's definitely worth the price you're paying!
Ginseng Chicken, 15 000W
We were pondering if rice was included, or we had to order it until C's father told us that there's glutinous rice in the chicken!
The soup was light, so definitely suitable for brunch on an empty stomach.
Ginseng taste wasn't that strong, so if you hate ginseng like me, no worries about it.
The larger cup serves tea.
The smaller cup is for the Ginseng Essence.
It was sooooooooooooo bitter!
I ended up passing it to C mama after 1 try hehe.
We arrived somewhere before 11am and there was no queue.
Shortly after we ordered, the room started filling up very quickly and was full in no time!
However, there are many rooms available in Tosokchon, so they can sit many customers at a time.
Even when we left, there still wasn't any queue!
Yoogane
Now that there's Yoogane in SG, I guess everyone knows what they sell!
Basically you order sets of what you want, and they will stir-fry it for you!
Yoogane is famous for 닭갈비(Dakgalbi), which is essentially diced chicken in chilli pepper paste.
But if you must have seafood for your meal, they have seafood sets too!
We ordered the dakgalbi set, forgot how much it was but relatively cheap compared to SG prices!
This was 4 servings!
And the waiters/waitress will help you to cook and fry them!
We ate at the branch in Myeongdong and they are relatively used to having foreigners, so it's alright even if you don't know korean!
We added on ramen instead of rice and it was goooooooood!
You have the choice of normal rice/fried rice too!
The only difference of fried rice is that they will help you to stir-fry it with your remaining sauce, chicken & vegetables at the end!
And if you're wondering what's there for vegeterians....
Other than the stir-frying sections, Yoogane also serves noodles!
Most of korea's cold noodles do not contain any meat.
So for Mama C, we actually ordered cold noodles for her!
It was 9000W and an extremely big bowl!
Myeongdong Kyoja
This place has been recommended by many people on the internet, that's how I got to know!
They are famous for their dumplings, so that's all that everyone eats!
If you're there, you will see the same thing on everyone's table.
The legendary noodles and steamed mandu!
That bowl of noodles is a huge serving!
I had a hard time trying to finish it even though I'm a die-hard fan supporter of noodles!
Even C didn't manage to finish it!
And I thought the mandu were just normal so you can actually skip it.
Just the noodles will do.
The mandu & dumpling contains meat so none of them for Mama C ):
I was hoping they would have some with chives stuffings instead so Mama C could try too, but nopezzzzzzz.
One bad thing of dining in Korea is they're too unflexible with their food!
ASking if they can remove 1 ingredient from their food normally results in rejection ):
So for Mama C, she had cold noodles again ):
But at least it was of soy base and the noodles were green!
We're guessing it's made from spinach!
Parking in Plate
This place was made famous by 1 of the couples of "We got Married"
Maybe because we went there in the afternoon, the food was alright, but the ambience wasn't that good.
This was some pizza fondue, recommended on the menu.
If you are there, this is something you must order!
There's bacon, corn and cheese on the pizza and you make it even mroe cheesy by dipping it into the cheese fondue!
It was perfect for cheese lovers!
Love the addition of corn too, a different crunch from the pizzas in SG.
Can't really remember what pizza is this? Pepperoni?? (*´艸`*)
The special thing about this pizza is that you don't use your hands!
You eat it using your spoon to scoop the pizza!
I like this concept, makes eating pizza fuss-free!
Ordered this Salad Pasta for Mama C!
I've always doubt how good salads can be but this was daebak!
The veggies were fresh and the sauce made them refreshing in the summer heat!
For the first time in my life, I actually feel ordering salad wasn't a waste of money!
Dining in Korea with a Vegeterian is not easy.
1) You will always have to check with the restaurant if there's food that does not contain meat.
It will be hard if you don't know korean, so try to learn some phrases.
2)And then if there isn't, most of the time, they won't agree to remove the meat from the dish.
So it's actually useless to ask, but I still try, hoping it will make a difference hahaha.
3)Then again, if there's food for a vegeterian, it's normally cold noodles or bibimbap, so there's very limited choices. If you go to cafes, there's cake and salads though.
If you are looking for traditional vegeterian food there's quite a bit of them actually.
We intended to visit one on our visit to Insadong.
It's called "Baru Gongyang"
But it was closed by the time we reached ):
Read reviews online that it was good, it was sad that Mama C couldn't try it.
I'm sure she would have enjoyed it though!
And so this is for the first part of dining in Korea with C family :)
