This section provides information on Korean food in general. By explaining curious ingredients or customs, you will learn what to watch out for when doing grocery shopping and how to better experience Korean food culture.
There are several subsections, which are structured by a unifying theme as follows:
Phenomenons of Korean food culture
- 🏃♂️🥕🤸♀️ Veggie Life in Korea – What’s life like as a vegan / vegetarian? A personal story reflecting typical experiences in Korean society.
- 🍔💄📸 Food Fashion – What is that?
- 🍻🌱🥂 Alcohol and Food – What can vegans and vegetarians eat?
- 🍞❓🍰 Bread is Not Bread – Is Korean bread vegan?
- 🍯🚫🐝 Honey or No-Honey – What is honey and what is vegan?
- ⛺🥡🌃 Street Food – What Korean street food is vegan?
- 🚙🥡🚌 On the Road – Where can you eat on a road trip in Korea?
- 🥾🗻🍣 Hiking in Korea – Where and what can you eat on mountains?
- 📿☸️🙏 Temple Food and Forbidden Foods – What is Buddhist food and why are there eating taboos?
- 🌕🍚🌰 First Full Moon Festival – Vegan food for the celebration of the full moon after lunar new year.
- 🌸🥢🌼 Food and Flowers in Korea – Which flowers are edible? What is a flower cafe?
- 🌱🚫🌾 Gluten-free Vegan – Surviving gluten-free AND vegan?
Korea’s natural food colors – #EatTheRainbow
- ❤️ Red
- 🧡 Orange
- 💛 Yellow
- 💚 Green – Nokcha 녹차 and ssuk 쑥
- 💜 Purple – sweet potatoes
- 💗 Pink
- 🖤 Black – animal- versus plant-based
Ingredients of Korean cuisine – regional & veggie-friendly
- 🌾 Cereal grains
- 🍚 Rice
- 🌾 Buckwheat 메밀 – adds color, flavor and nutrition!
- 🌽 Corn 옥수수 – colorful, powerful and complex!
- 🍮 Tofu and soy products
- 🍮 Son-dubu 손두부 – firm hand-made tofu
- 🍮 Yeon-dubu 연두부 – soft tofu
- 🍮 Korean jellies
- 🌱 Dotori-muk 도토리묵 – bitter but delicious acorn jelly
- 🌱 Gonyak 곤약 – smells like squid!
- 🌱 Memil-muk 메밀묵 – buckwheat jelly
- 🌱 Nokdu-muk 녹두묵 / Cheongpo-muk 청포묵 – mung bean jelly
- 🌱 Olbang-gae-muk 올방개묵 – jelly made of water chestnut
- 🌱 Umuk 우묵 – low calorie summer jelly made from seaweed
- 🌱 Hancheon 한천 – agar, gelling agent extracted from seaweed
- 🐷 Gelatin – watch out: hidden gelatin!
- 🥕 Vegetables
- 🌿 Spring greens – a seasonal treat
- 🌿 shoots of Aralia – young tree greens
- 🍠 Lotus roots – beautiful as the flower
- 🍠 Sweet potatoes – edible every way
- 🥔 Potatoes – snack or staple?
- 🥔 Ma 마 – mysterious mild medicine?
- 🥕 Radish 무 – present at every meal
- 🌽 Corn 옥수수 – colorful, powerful and complex!
- 🌷 Doraji 도라지 – purple flowers with powerful roots
- 🥕 Deodeok 더덕 – delicious and medicinal roots
- 🌱 Kongnamul 콩나물 – soybean sprouts VS mung bean sprouts
- 🌿 Gosari 고사리 – ferns not worms!
- 🌿 Minari 미나리 – crunchy and flavorful herb
- 🎃 Pumpkins 호박 – sweet pumpkin, old pumpkin and young pumpkin
- 🌶 Chili peppers 고추 – classic Korean seasoning but not since long!
- 🧄 Garlic, onion and scallion 오신채 – the Five Forbidden Vegetables in Buddhism
- 🍇 Fruit
- 🍒 Jujube 대추 – aka “red date” or “Chinese date” but not related to dates!
- 🍅 Tomatoes – sweet AND salty
- 🍅 Persimmons 감 – the no-tomatoes
- 🍈 Korean melon 참외 – small crunchy yellow balls with stripes
- 🍐 Korean pear 배 – queen of pears
- 🍑 Maesil 매실 – unripe and sour but wonderfully fragrant!
- 🍊 Mandarin oranges – how to distinguish Korea’s citrus fruits
- 🍓 Strawberries 딸기 – harvested in winter?!
- 🍓 Korean raspberry 산딸기 – don’t expect your regular European raspberry!
- 🌰 Nuts
- 🌰 Chestnuts 밤
- 🟡 Ginkgo 은행 – hidden treasure
- 🌲 Pine nuts 잣
- 🌿 Seaweed
- 🌿 Gim 김 – edible paper
- 🌿 Miyeok 미역 – good on birthdays, bad on exams
- 🌿 Dasima 다시마 – the secret ingredient
- 🌿 other seaweeds
♣️Sesame Sprinkles♣️ 