Doug’s Country Vegetarian Score Card for: Korea (the Republic of)

Fantastic Korean Buddhist Vegetarian Food!

Context
Country: Republic of Korea (often known as South Korea)
Language(s): Korean and some English
Length of stay(s): 12 days June 2011

Main issues
Understanding of concept: Poor – may have been that the term ‘vegetarian’ was understood as ‘vegetable’, as one YouTuber (expatkerri) recommends just ask them to take the meat out (oh and the fish). Hyunwoo Sun gives a really full explanation in his YouTube video
Availability: not good
Choice of menu: not good, most items have some form of fish or meat in them
Quality: Good where available
Value for money: Good where available
Traditional vegetarian cuisine: Kimchi, but little lacto-ovo
Ease of asking for vegetarian options: Difficult

Useful information
In Seoul I found the Balwoo Gongyang Kong 발우공양 Temple Food which was excellent (see picture above)

Useful phrases
Watch expatkerri’s YouTube videos, which include the text and audio you need

http://www.hedweb.com/animals/vegphrase.htm

Useful external links
The YouTube videos mentioned above

Overall score
For me, and I feel bad saying it 3 out of 10 – Sorry Korean’s are so nice that I feel guilty (it;’s just my experience I’m sure others have fared better)

Report notes
I was only in Korea for a week and half – I’m sure the longer I was there the better it would have been

Doug’s Vegetarian score card assumptions
1) I (and you?) would rather eat something local and traditional than international and from a chain (e.g., McDonald’s or Starbucks)
2) Lacto-ovo is preferred (note, I’m a vegetarian that likes to ensure I have at least 40g of protein a day)
3) I don’t eat fish or sea food (so my score card ignores ‘fish’ options)
4) I’m not a huge ‘foodie’ I start by looking at the nutritional value of food
5) This is all my personal opinion / experience – your mileage may vary as my US friends might say