Radies and radishes: Part 12

Posted on 26 February 2010

Seoul Power

… the journal of a South African vegan in Japan (errr, Korea), by Carey Finn

23 February 2010

One of the biggest advantages to living in Japan is the travel opportunities you have. The main island of Honshu, in particular, is a springboard to the rest of Asia. A flight to South Korea takes just 1 hour and 24 minutes – it’s like flying from Jo’burg to Durban. Travel agents sometimes offer special deals, and after 5 months of stalking them, I was able to get a cheap ticket to Seoul.

So, at the end of January, I popped over for a weekend. One of my best friends from varsity has been teaching English in South Korea for the past few years, and I was excited to see him again. Of course, I was equally excited to try the local food. Being a whiz in the kitchen, the said friend fattened me up on curries, flatbreads, crumbed tofu and low GI fridge tart – all of which was delicious, if a little deadly. We eventually made it out of the kitchen so that I could take in some of the tourist sites, and try some Korean cooking.

Our first pit stop was at a bakery; unfortunately selling neither verifiably vegan nor yummy goods. The breads and pastries were much like the ones in Japan; either cake-like or plastic-like, or a combination of the two. Lunch, luckily, was much more successful. We went to a great vegetarian restaurant that was tucked away down an alley in the shopping district of Insa-dong. The restaurant had a big menu, and about 80% of the dishes were vegan.

We sat at a low table and ordered several dishes, with the local custom being to share food. A pot of mushroom, veggie and soya-meat shabu-shabu (a Japanese stew-type of thing, where you cook the ingredients yourself), a plate of samoosa-type pastries, filled with fiery fake meat, and a platter of soya steak slices were brought to the table. The main dishes were accompanied by lots of little bowls of dipping sauces, salads and kimchi. Almost everything was hot enough to make even a Mexican blush. The kimchi, Korea’s unofficial national dish, was cabbage that had been prepared with perhaps a kg of chillies. It was tasty, but coming from the much subtler (some say, bland) tastes of Japan, I couldn’t handle it. Luckily for my lips, not all of the dishes contained chilli.

Our leisurely lunch was filling, lots of fun and cheap too. Travelling to South Korea on the Yen is like travelling to … well, somewhere the Rand is strong. Mozambique maybe?

While travelling around and doing sightseeing, I snacked on walnut and soya blend drinks (delicious) and sweet potato soya puddings from the convenience stores, as well as the odd caffeinated beverage from …cringe … Starbucks. The city is as Americanised as Osaka, and all of the usual suspects were present – Krispy Kreeme, Baskin Robbins, etc.

On my last day in Seoul, we had lunch at a vibey Mexican restaurant in the foreign part of the city. My friend and I shared giant refried beans and potato burritos, which went down a treat. Not exactly traditional Korean food, but a good vegetarian option. Much of the food sold at the street stalls and mainstream restaurants contains cow, fish or other animal parts, making it difficult to just drop by a fun-looking place for a meal.

I must have gained at least 3 kg over the weekend, and I fear that if I lived there, I would be the size of a blimp within 6 months. But luckily I am in Japan, for now. ^_^

Next time: Edible plum blossoms, Chinese New Year treats and more.