How the Treatment of Dogs in Korea Should Shake our Conscience on Eating Meat: My Story

First an update on Noah the dog (original post here), after my concerns about how my in-laws were taking care of him I was then slightly disappointed to learn that they also couldn't keep him.  Why oh why they couldn't have realised this before they got him, lord only knows, it could have saved them, me, and more importantly the dog a lot of heartache.  For a variety of reasons my in-laws had to give him up.

Despite the chopping and changing of owners being horrible for the dog, I am at least optimistic about who they have given the dog to; a man who owns other dogs and doesn't believe in keeping them tied-up outside.  It seems as if he has other dogs and cats also, so if he can train Noah well enough, it seems like he will have a lot of company.  It is certainly far from the perfect solution, but it is at least not the worst that could happen.

So, on to matters of eating meat.  I was a vegetarian for about ten years from the age of about 20.  I became one not because I knew all that much about how animals were farmed or slaughtered, but simply because I was reading quite a lot of moral philosophy at the time and was logically argued out of it.  Basically, there is not any good reason why we should rear and kill animals purely for our own pleasure when clearly the results of doing this are against the animal's best interests or choices (the fact is we should not assume their choices or make them for the animal).

I was fairly strict (in that I wouldn't eat seafood also) for most of these ten years up until I arrived in Korea.  For the first year, I ate seafood in Korea as I found myself struggling for vegetarian options (especially as I was so inept at sorting things out at the time generally), but still no meat.  However, after I met my wife and started working in a public school I lapsed into eating meat also.  My reasons were based around the lower availability of meat alternatives (especially in school food) and the great advantage it gave me in keeping my in-laws and work colleagues happy.  I can eat basically anything and I love Korean food.  You wouldn't believe how much easier this makes my life in Korea and also how much more liked I am for being this way by Korean people.

Still, I did not eat that much meat generally and in the last few months I have stopped buying it completely, but still eat it if my in-laws serve it up or if it is unavoidable in my school dinners.  I still don't drink milk and avoid dairy products as much as possible, but for more practical reasons as I am lactose intolerant.

A few weeks ago, however, I decided to go back to being a strict vegetarian again.  What prompted this change?  It was the feelings I had about Noah's situations and the hypocrisy of  eating meat at the same time.

I was so concerned for Noah, so much so I was prepared to turn my life upside-down to keep him in a ridiculously unfavourable situation.  Even when I realised the expense and the trouble of taking him to Australia, I was for a time trying to find ways in which I could do it.  All this despite the fact he was almost impossible to take care of in my small apartment, on my own, and with my work commitments, which was causing me a fair amount of stress.  When I had to give him to my in-laws as planned, and then saw the conditions they were keeping him in and the way they were looking after him, I was almost moved to tears.

Noah wasn't being abused by my in-laws, just neglected slightly and not treated with the love and attention I thought a dog needed.  His quality of life was not up to scratch. 

But this got me thinking while I was eating pork ribs (galbi) round my in-laws house.  The dog was outside and I was worried about him, but here I was tucking into meat from a pig that probably had a far lower quality of life than most dogs would have, even in Korea.  I knew also that there was no real reason to differentiate between the suffering capacity of a pig and that of a dog.  I was a hypocrite, I cared so much about this cute fluffy thing outside because he had become a part of my life and I could see him and his relatively low-level suffering, but I cared very little about the pig I was eating.  The only reason I didn't care was because it was out of sight and out of mind.  Willful ignorance or delegation of responsibility of rearing and killing what I ate were not good reasons to continue eating meat.  I was eating it, I spent money on buying meat and I therefore supported, not only the killing of the animals, but of the cruel factory farm practices where approximately 66% of the animals eaten in the world come from.

A while ago I received a comment on one of my blog posts saying exactly this (here) and the person in question lambasted me for being a hypocrite.  Essentially, the comment was right, but I thought it was a tad judgemental.  She did not know that I knew about all the issues and had been wrestling with them for quite some time while also dealing with living in a different culture and family (and that I had been a vegetarian for so long).   The writer of the comment basically said what many Koreans say when confronted with how they treat dogs and the fact of eating them, "well you eat pigs, cows and chickens, don't you?  What is the difference?"  In my posts on abortion and the treatment of dogs in Korea I stated some of the reasons why I do think there is something special about a dog and that the way they are treated does tell a story about morality in Korean culture.  I stand by what I say, if you can't even treat our closest friend in the animal kingdom with some compassion and respect, I don't think this is encouraging and is definitely going to make the job of animals rights campaigners much more difficult in the changing of attitudes towards all animals in general.

At least in Western countries more people do seem to understand that animals can suffer and our close relationship and care of dogs can help us achieve a base for greater compassion and empathy for other animals also.  Indeed, I think dogs can really serve as a consciousness raiser for Western people when it comes to the ethical treatment of other animals.  Of course, many Korean people have a love of dogs and animals, but the culture is very different towards dogs, especially bigger dogs and because of this Korea doesn't have the head-start most Western countries have in striving for the better treatment of animals.

That said, though, the vast majority of Westerners still don't really seem to care about what happens behind closed doors and the pleasure of satisfying their taste buds is simply more important to them than the suffering of other sentient beings.  In essence Koreans are correct, it is hypocritical of us to come down on them hard over the eating of dogs and the cruelty they sometimes show towards them.  As long as we all support factory farming, in particular, by continuing to buy meat products they will always have a point.  Their treatment of dogs and the use of them as a food source should serve to make us all feel uncomfortable about what is going on in the meat trade in our own countries.

Knowledge of what really goes on in the meat trade is important; one has a moral obligation not to simply turn a blind eye on what is going on and this is precisely what I had been doing.  Noah's predicament set me on the path to rediscovering the horrific amount of suffering we impart on animals on a shocking scale.  Reading a couple of books on animal rights by authors such as Peter Singer or watching documentary videos such as, "The Earthlings", is enough to put anyone off their appetite for eating meat.

On top of all this I have never heard an anywhere near convincing argument for eating meat in modern developed societies.  I watched a debate recently by Intelligence Squared in Australia on the issue of eating meat and I was fairly shocked how hopelessly inept the side in favour of eating meat were in defending their position.  Most people in my experience simply pretend do know things they do not know by saying things like "animals don't suffer" or "slaughter is painless for the animals."

It is hard not to become preachy as soon as you make the decision to be a vegetarian.  Once you realise the injustice of how we use animals for our own pleasure it is hard not to be outraged by it.  Factory farming, especially when combined with animal testing in science and medicine, compares frighteningly well to the Holocaust, for example, because if you can accept that there is even a chance that animals can suffer and feel pain in similar ways to which humans can suffer, our conscience should be heavily weighed-down by what is happening daily with animals.*  Back in 2001 an average of 2.5 million animals were killed daily for the purpose of food, the vast majority in abattoirs.  This figure is almost certainly much higher at present.

Perhaps the way forward is a compromise; I find it hard to be so upset about free-range animals as a source for food.  I think there are still problems with slaughter, but in principle the life of a cow roaming around a large pasture before being killed, for example, is less troubling.  In an ideal world though, there would still be a massive issue with regard to the moral treatment of animals because even ethically-reared animals often end-up going to abattoirs to be killed, which are grim places indeed, not to mention the troublesome issue of the transport of them to the abattoirs.  Even if the methods used to kill the animals were proved to be utterly painless, both mentally and physically, can we guarantee that every time an animal is killed this is so?  This seems to be a problem.

Think of your own job or even general tasks and hobbies and how many small mistakes you make over the length of one day; just writing the last sentence I had to make 3 corrections.  Make small mistakes in the killing of animals and you can cause extreme pain and suffering.  These mistakes become more likely due to time constraints caused by trying to process as many animals as possible in order to save/make more money and cope with demand from consumers.  This also assumes the people responsible for killing the animals in abattoirs are all well-adjusted, highly moral human beings that won't abuse the animals further, and considering what the job entails and the potential for a significant amount of desensitisation to killing and pain that must occur even over the space of just one day on the job, this seems highly unlikely.

So there you have it, a blog basically dedicated to promoting the idea of becoming a vegetarian, with some small relevance to living in Korea.  I guess though, that conclusions we come to in life and the following decisions we make can really be affected by traveling and living in other countries.  The true experience of another culture is often an unsettling one, which forces us to confront some uncomfortable issues regarding our own.  Sometimes we are well aware these things exist, we can play-out thought experiments in our heads, but actually having to deal with it first-hand in another culture often brings the message home with frightening and possibly life-changing clarity.  If you live in a culture different to your own for a long enough period of time, you will begin to slowly change many of the ideas, principles, and ways of living you previously thought of as normal or simply took for granted.  This is precisely why, as it is famously said, travel broadens the mind.

* Altered from the original piece to include, "especially when combined with animal testing in science and medicine" because of a point raised in my comments section by Burndog.

Asia shows the way in its Street Food, the West shows the way to a Heart Attack

I am having a bit of a war on Western food (from English speaking countries) at the moment and combined with a recent post of mine over at Asiapundits on enjoying food and food waste, I thought I'd use my own site to highlight some attitudes towards health and our food and what we can learn from Korea specifically, and Asia in general.

I don't know much about the United States, but from what I can gather from the news, my American friends and the internet the people there tend to be a little more overweight than average, my country is not far behind and to be honest it isn't hard to see why.

Recently, I have been watching a program on National Geographic Adventure in Korea called "Eat Street".  It charts the truck street food trend currently in the US, Canada, and occasionally other countries like the UK.  It always happens to be on the TV when I am eating dinner myself, coincidentally.  While I usually tuck into Korean food for dinner, I can see what Americans on streets all over the country are eating.

It is actually quite an interesting program and usually makes me quite hungry, even after I have finished dinner.  Sometimes, however, I have to admit to being quite shocked at what some people can put down their throats.  Here are some examples:

I always hear of the customers of these establishments saying how they often eat there everyday or a few times a week and I wonder how their hearts can cope.  I also see parents feeding some of the more irresponsible things to their children, some of whom are already grossly overweight. 

Of course, excess is kind of the point to these food trucks, but it is a fair reflection of where we are in Western culture with regard to enjoying food.  There is a definite feeling of, "This is so bad for me, but I don't care, in fact that's what makes me like it more."  I sort of understand this attitude because I used to have it myself.  However, living in Korea and also travelling to other countries around Asia have given me a new insight into how we perhaps should be looking at the food we eat.

The street food around Asia sums much of this up quite nicely.  Korea is the only country I have lived in and street food is probably not quite as good as in many other countries in Asia, especially Thailand.  While the street food in Korea is not especially healthy (it is also not especially unhealthy either), it is also not thought of as a meal, just a snack often during a night-out drinking.  The portions therefore reflect this and it doesn't seem quite so indulgent as the clips above.

Somewhere like Thailand, on the other hand, has street food sorted.  You can get anything from quick snacks to full meals, freshly prepared and often quite healthy.  When I was there, I did not see gluttony on the street, just a varied and interesting food culture.  I have traveled to a number of countries now in Asia and a pattern I see is that street food in the Far East is more about smaller snacks and South East Asia tends to go for actual meals.

While some might argue that the lack of health and safety regulations for street food vendors in Asia might cause health problems of their own, in principle the food on offer does not clog arteries or drastically expand waist-lines.  The funny thing about Western food culture generally, shown in many of the street-food trucks featured in "Eat Street" is the pride people take in looking death in the face while they eat.

The "Double By-Pass Burger" with "Flatliner fries" by Heart Attack Grill

I know the above picture is all in good fun, yet at the same time I can't help but feel that it sums-up a very serious attitude problem towards our relationship towards food in many Western nations.  In Korea, I have noticed people eat food for a specific purpose - other than just filling their stomachs - and this is to make them feel good, feel stronger, or to make them healthier in some other way.  Even if some of these reasons are bullshit ones, there is still a real thought to what they are eating having positive effects on their body, rather than simply fulfilling a gluttonous desire for sugar and fat because it gives them a big hit of guilty pleasure.

The interesting thing is though, Koreans love the taste of their food as much as anyone and I have learned to love the pleasure of eating Korean food also.  Once I coupled this pleasure for eating with the genuine feeling of well-being it gave me and the feeling of being healthy, there was no turning back.  To put it simply, my diet is no longer a Western one, it is predominantly Asian and mostly Korean (because that's what I know best).  Even Western food that is not fast-food or street food does not tend to make it onto my plate anymore.  Generally, I find it too heavy, too fatty, and too oily and it just doesn't make me feel good in the same way Korean food does.

If street food tells us something about the culture of the country we are in, what does the street food of the US or the UK tell us?  I showed some of these clips to my students at school last week as part of a lesson on food.  While a minority thought that the food featured on some of these trucks looked like the best thing since sliced bread, the majority were shocked by what was being consumed and many laughed at the number of fat people eating it and saw it all as a fit subject for ridicule.  I have to say, when you look at it all from the perspective of a culture with a greater connection between food and what it does for the body, I must agree with them, there is something ridiculous about it.

Perhaps I am being a little unfair, after all I did pick probably some of the worst clips of the most unhealthy food trucks to show you.  However, the healthy ones did tend to be exclusively non-American, non-Canadian, or non-English, and a great many of them had an Asian theme.  They also tended to feature much smaller portion sizes.  Huge portion sizes was something that shocked me on my only visit to the USA.  Here are some examples of the healthier food trucks on the show:

Of course it is just one TV show, but my experience of street food from back home is not a healthy one either; it mainly consisted of hot dogs, doughnuts, pork pies, pasties and not a lot more (not that Britain is especially world famous for its food culture).  I guess on a positive note the show does at least show how open most of our countries' people are to eating food from other places.  Unfortunately, however, the "good ol' fashioned" all-American food or English food that is served on most of these food trucks are often the worst examples of fat, grease, and general unhealthiness imaginable.

In reference to my post over at Asiapundits about waste and enjoyment of food, someone wrote that the poor attitudes to food we have in the West are mainly present in the cities and when you get outside of them people are eating locally-grown food and eating healthily and that I was mainly talking about a countryside vs the city phenomenon.  This was not my experience in England, however, and a little anecdote that sums-up our differences in food culture concerns the contrast in the schools that I worked at in England and my current school in Korea.

At break time in one of the rural schools I worked at in England (picture a classically old, rich English school in some of the most idyllic countryside you can imagine, it was a beautiful school) between stints in Korea, there would often be food in the middle of the staff room for all the teachers to enjoy.  100% of the time this would be cakes, chocolate or sweets.  While I tucked into some of this myself, I was often held back by a niggling guilty conscience about what the Koreans I knew would have to say looking at the scene.  I thought that they would say we were eating the kind of food kids would eat and that as teachers and adults we should be eating much better quality food, not to mention the number of over-weight teachers that were scoffing down cupcakes and fun-size chocolate treats.

The difference in my High school in Korea is like chalk and cheese.  Occasionally there is something sweet, but not nearly as sweet as back home, even the cakes in Korea seem to be lighter and less calorie dense (which is probably why they are not as tasty).  The vast majority of the time the only food that gets put out on our staff room table is locally-produced, seasonal fruits and vegetables.  It is a telling difference in culture.

When I see what is depicted of the US and what I see for myself in my own country, I wonder whether too many of us have a relationship with food that is totally dysfunctional and broken.  There is also a childish element to the way we eat; it is almost as if we need our mums on our shoulder all the time to tell us not to eat the things we know we shouldn't.  The fact that she is not there to do so means we can be naughty and do what we know is wrong anyway.

There is of course nothing wrong with a little indulgence every now and then, but when it becomes too commonplace we need to change our ways; there is an obesity epidemic in many Western English-speaking countries which is at the heart of a range of health problems.  This is down to our culture as much as anything else, a culture that is severely compromised in the food department.  We have slipped into some of the worst habits imaginable, consuming some of the worst food possible and doing very little physical exercise.  A connection between the health of our bodies and the food we put into our mouths has to be restored and looking to other countries that have better attitudes may help us break a rather dangerous spell of unhealthy eating that has been cast upon us.

Instead of doing this, however, we seem to be remarkably good at spreading our bad habits to other countries.  I hope Korea doesn't lose sight of what is great about their food as some of the younger generation appear to be slipping into the same bad habits as we are in the West.  Let's hope that Asia's food culture wins through in the end or at least the healthier aspects of our own food culture in the West.

Korean Food and Why it is so Great - Part 2

Sorry for the delay in this post, but I have had a busy few weeks with a wedding, parents coming to Korea, my wife leaving for Australia to study, and being given a white Jindo puppy from my father in-law to look after.  Because of this, however, there will be some interesting posts coming up in the next few weeks.  I thought I had better finish off my love affair with Korean food first, though.

Following on from last week, I think an interesting part of any country's cuisine is the trying of foods that make you squirm a little, the delicacies that you can amaze your friends and family by saying you've tried when you get back home, so this is where we will start part 2.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Live Octopus (산낙지) - most commonly this is only the tentacles cut up and served with some seasame oil and salt on the side.  Still wriggling, the tentacles must be chewed quite a lot to avoid the suckers sticking to your throat on the way down.  The taste is really not that bad at all.  If you want some really hardcore delicacy action, however, you can eat the whole octopus live by wrapping it around some chopsticks and putting it all in.  I have never tried this, and I am slightly fearful to do it as I have heard that people die eating it like this, especially when already a little tipsy on soju.  The octopus obviously sticks inside peoples throats and chokes them to death.  I don't fancy picking up a Darwin Award for such silly night-time antics.

San Nakji by LWY at flickr

Fermented Ray (홍어) - I have never tasted anything worse.  I am a great admirer of Bear Grylls and if you have watched any of his shows you will know that he will eat just about anything and I am similar.  I don't tend to gag or have any prejudices about eating anything (I do draw the line at dog, however).  I have eaten 홍어 twice, it is usually served with a bit of fatty grisley pork and kimchi, but it doesn't manage to take the taste away, which is truly horrible and the closest I have ever come to being sick right-away after eating something.  The pungent smell of the fermented fish also gets right up your nose.  Worth a try once, but be warned!

Silk Worm Pupa (번데기) - These are often sold as snacks in little paper cups on street stalls and I rather like them.  One cup is quite filling as it must be quite high in protein.  Apparently (so Bear Grylls says), insects - pound for pound - contain more protein than beef.  As a keen hiker, it is difficult to carry high protein and cheap foods with you on a hike, so I have gotten into the habit of carrying a tin or two hiking with me and either eating them straight out of the tin or putting them in a sandwich with some tomato ketchup.  I also cook 번데기 fried rice for dinner sometimes, although my wife says it gives me bad breath, so I am banned from eating this when she is around and she accuses me of eating 'pig food'.  Seeing as she has gone to Australia, however, I can eat with freedom for a while, and in fact, the first two nights she was away, I ate it both nights.  It ain't great, but it is nutritious and cheap.

Raw Seafood (회) - If you go to a raw seafood restaurant in Korea, you can sample some really great, tasty and healthy food, but there are some slightly dodgy things on the menu also and if you are with some mischievous Koreans they might well order it for you, as happened to me one week into my Korean experience many years ago.  A couple of the more, shall we say, acquired tastes are Sea Squirt and Gae Bul (a pink sea spoon worm that looks like a penis and obviously good for a man's stamina in bed).  The Gae Bul was as bad as the 홍어 and the sea squirt was just bizarre and difficult to eat.

Gae Bul: Photo by J. Patrick Fischer

Gae Bul: Photo by J. Patrick Fischer

Great Soups

Eel Soup (장어탕) - I have this at school quite a lot and I have to say that I get quite excited when I see it in the pot.  Usually, the whole eel is ground up into a paste in the soup so you eat bones, sinew and all amoungst the other ingredients and it is very spicy.  As with many dishes in Korea, it is a whole lot better than it sounds.  I did once have it with sliced sections of eel in it, however, on Geoje island, which wasn't so good because I had to spit out a lot of bones, but the soup still tasted great.

Spicy Fish Soup (매운탕) - Bit of a tricky one to eat as there are often a lot of bones, fins and other fish parts in it, but it is spicy, wholesome and delicious.  I remember once having it after I finished running a marathon, and although I was sceptical that a spicy, fishy soup was the best thing I could be eating straight after running all that way, once I had some I felt almost immediately rejuvenated.

Heavily Fermented Bean Soup (춘국장) - the stronger, fuller-flavoured elder brother of 된장찌깨
(doenjang soup) is an aquired taste as it has a strange flavour and intense odour.  As always very good for you.

Bone Soup (설렁탕) - There are a few varieties of bone soup, but I am picking the one I know best and like best, 설렁탕 (Solongtang).  This is a bone soup with sliced beef, served with rice, salt, and radish kimchi, which is usually mixed all together.  If I can recommend one soup to really make you feel strong and healthy it would be this one.  It often makes me feel like a new man after eating it and this feeling is something I really like a lot of Korean dishes for.  They don't just fill your stomach and taste good, but they make you feel great as well.

Motorway Service Station Food

When you first come to Korea, it might just be that you need to go on a fairly long bus journey to get to your destination.  On the way you will stop at a service station, and besides the sit-down food you can eat there serving the usual fare, you will find other food that is quite specific to motorway service stations.  Not the healthiest usually, but will temporarily fill a hole in your stomach.

Fish Cake on a Stick - And other stuff on a stick with mustard and ketchup.  It is Korea's answer for hot dogs, which they also serve at service stations.  My personal favourite is a Doek Dog, which is crispy Korean rice cake on the outside and a frankfurter in the middle.

Walnut Cake (호두 과자) - my favourite long-journey snack food.  Best when it is warm, but be careful not to burn your tongue on the red bean paste inside.  Crispy on the outside with a walnut also, they are lovely and sweet without being grossly unhealthy.

Roast Potatoes - I was slightly surprised by this as I thought Korea wasn't a particularly potato liking country.  They sell mini roast potatoes at many stops and most Korean people I have ever seen eating them put so much salt on them, it is almost unbelievable.

Pumpkin Candy (엿) - Come in small plastic boxes and cost about a couple of dollars.  It doesn't look that great value as it seems there is not much there.  However, they are quite chewy and surprisingly long-lasting.  Quite subtlely sweet and satisfying to chew on, with quite a unique texture and flavour, they can end-up being quite addictive.

There are many other foods that you can buy at these stops, which seems to be the same at every one, including:

Corn on the cob
Takoyaki (Japanese snack, and another favourite little snack of mine)
Deli Manjoo (sort of vanilla cream in a soft batter)
Whole fried squid
Sweet potato fries
Sandwiches (Korean style)
Tteokbokki

Takoyaki: Photo by Keith Pomakis on 2004-09-18.



Side Dishes

There are almost certainly too many to name, as kimchi alone has about 200 different varieties.  An American friend of mine once said Korea was, "the land of side dishes no one wants to eat", and I used to agree with him, but as my Korean food appetite has matured and grown, the side dishes have also come into their own.  Many side dishes are vegetables, fish or egg served in a tasty sauce to make them more palatable.  When my wife visited England with me she remarked about how blandly we cooked vegetables, often boiled without a sauce, Koreans rarely do this and there can also be an incredible range of different side dishes with different meals.

I think it is fair to say I could go on and on about Korean food.  When I wonder around the city, I can see so many foods that I haven't yet tried, so I still have a way to go yet on sampling everything Korea has to offer in the food department and this makes me even more puzzled when people say it lacks variety.  There is no way I could even come close to doing the same two-part post on delicious English food. 

Perhaps there is a reason, though, why Western people say Korean food lacks variety; maybe we Westerners indulge ourselves in other culture's food much more often than Koreans do.  Sure, Koreans like their Western food, Japanese food, and sometimes Chinese food, but they are often Koreanised slightly and they eat them far less often than Korean food.  Most Koreans I know really love their own food, I can't say the same for English people.  Yes, we love a good roast dinner, but we also love an Indian or Thai curry, a take-away Chinese, Mexican food, Italian food, etc.  We eat other culture's foods far more often, in my experience, than Koreans do and I think this goes for most people from Western countries.  This rings so true in England that apparently the Chicken Tikka Masala is the nation's favourite food and is now even considered an English dish.

So when you consider that most of the time in Korea, Koreans that you are with are eating almost solely Korean food and they enjoy the pleasure of introducing you to it, perhaps then you might be able to see that it is not devoid of variety at all. 

Personally, I eat a Pizza about once every 3 weeks and the rest of the time I eat Korean food.  I never get bored, I feel great, energetic, and I am almost certainly much healthier for it.  My favourite food in the world, I always miss Korean food badly when I leave Korea.

Korean Food and why it is so Great - Part 1

I often label Korean food as one of the significant plus points to living in Korea in my posts, but I am regularly amazed how so many people come back to me asking me in puzzlement how I can justify this.  I have also had a number of people state that Korean food lacks variety.  I simply cannot understand this; in my opinion Korean food is delicious, varied, and super-healthy.  It is going to be difficult to list everything, so I am going to stick with some of the things I like best and hopefully some of you might be so kind to add your favourites to my comments section below (wait until I finish part 2 though!).

The Basics

These are the Korean foods that everybody should be well-aware of, even the newcomers.

Bibimbap (비빔밥) - is still one of my favourites as it is packed with lots of different vegetables so it is healthy, fairly cheap, quick to prepare, and delicious.  It is fast-food Korea style.  Bibimbap is also extremely varied and different ingredients are combined in different places.  Fresh seafood bibimbap is often enjoyed in coastal regions, which varies from place to place according to what is caught (I recently had Sea Urchin bibimbap in Geoje Island, for example).  It can also come sizzling in a stone bowl or on a flat plate and is generally a favourite with most foreign visitors.  If you want the best bibimbap in Korea, head to Jeonju in Jeollabukdo.

Kimchi Jiggae (김치찌개) - this has become a regular feature of my diet, even when I was back home in England, as it is actually very easy to cook at home (although a little tricky to cook really well).  All you basically need is Kimchi and water really and obviously other ingredients add to the flavour.  My father in-law always cooks this dish extremely well, often adding the cheapest and fattiest bits of pork to make the flavour even better.

Kimbap (김밥) - cheap, delicious, comes in a few different varieties, and it is portable; who doesn't like kimbap?  I used to make it for lunch in England and take it with me before the start of my cricket matches.  When I handed it to friends to try, they looked at me like I had given them a piece of dog poo to eat.  But once they tried it, they almost always liked it.  An older, wiser friend told me, "You know, I think you can't not like that."  I agree.

Doen Jang Jiggae (된장찌개) - there are a few key ingredients that pop-up in many Korean dishes; kimchi, gochu jang (chili paste), and doen jang (fermented soy bean paste).  Like miso soup in Japan, but with a stronger flavour, this soup is often served with or after some other foods at various restaurants.  Again, this is another easy one to cook at home and I personally like adding a little gochu jang when I make it for a little spicy flavour.  A very simple and delicious soup.

Korean Porridge (죽) - is made with rice, not oats, in various varieties and different ingredients.  Doctors always prescribe this when you are feeling poorly as it is usually not spicy and doesn't have strong flavours or fermented ingredients, making it easy on your stomach.  As always, very healthy food.

Korean BBQ (갈비 Galbi) - I have hardly met anyone who doesn't like going out to eat at a Korean BBQ restaurant, whether it be pork or beef.  My personal favourite is Dakgalbi (chicken), which is not so much BBQ, but the cooking of chicken in a spicy sauce on a hot pan.  There are, however, many other varieties of Korean BBQ, as well.

The Non-Spicy Alternatives

Something that I hear often from many foreigners living in Korea is that Korean food is basically one flavour and that is spicy.  Therefore, if you don't like spicy food, you're screwed.  While many of my personal favourite foods in Korea are indeed spicy, I would have to disagree that this is all there is and I managed to find a great many alternatives for my very spicy food-shy mother to try when she visited last year.  I have in fact already listed a number of them in porridge, BBQ, doen jang jiggae, and kimbap, but here are a few more:

Samgyetang (삼계탕) - This is basically a whole chicken in a pot of warm soup and rice, stuffed with various things to add to the flavour.  It is supposed to be extremely healthy and is most widely eaten on the hottest days of summer.  Even though the meat almost falls off the bone, I do however, find it a bit of a drag to eat with chopsticks and a spoon, but it is very tasty and healthy nonetheless.

Miyeok Guk (미역국 Seaweed Soup) - also known as "Birthday Soup" because it is usually given as breakfast on many Korean people's birthdays.  I believe this is because mothers often eat this while carrying their child and after labour as it is thought to be very beneficial for mother and baby.  My wife often talks about making sure she is in Korea after giving birth so her mother can take care of her and cook her seaweed soup.  I would say that this soup is a bit of a grower in the taste department, however, and probably doesn't suit the foreign tongue straight-away.

Note: Not to be eaten before a big exam as the seaweed's slippery nature will cause your grade to slide downwards!

Kal Guk-Su (칼국수) - These are knife-cut wheat flour noodles, usually served in a soup, hence the name ("Kal" means knife in Korean).  Not usually spicy, and in many varieties to suit individual tastes, is especially famous in Myeongdong in Seoul.  Often served with Mandoo.

Mandoo (만두) - Korea's version of Dim Sum (Chinese Dumplings) are also not usually spicy, although Kimchi mandoo can be.  Good to snack on or as a bit of a side dish.  Personally, I like the huge mandoo that some shops specialise in that are really delicious dunked in soy sauce.

The Cheap and Delicious and Street-Foods

Korea doesn't quite match-up to somewhere like Thailand when it comes to street food, where you really can get anything from a snack to full meals with great variety that is cheap, healthy and tasty.  In Korea, I consider street food as more of a snack and I am sure Koreans do to.  Still, I really enjoy most of the street food and the small shops that sell a quick tasty bite to eat, especially in winter.  Let's start with my favourite:

Sweet and Spicy Chicken (닭강정) - usually found in small shops and sold in a cup.  Sometimes I feel like I could step over my own mother to get a cup of these crunchy chicken pieces.  They can be fiery hot, but also sweet at the same time, so I often have a small cup as kind of a dessert after a meal.  Occasionally, my school serve them for lunch and I become seriously excited - along with my students.  However, one day a teacher decided to load my tray with southern fried chicken instead (as he thinks I am a spicy food shy foreigner).  I thanked him for the sentiment, but actually felt like beating him to death with my food tray as I felt compelled to eat at least some of his fried chicken, which left less room for the 닭강정.

Spicy Rice Cakes (떡볶이) - easy to like and again is sweet and spicy.  Is a favourite with high school students, so if you really want to find the best places to eat this ask some students, they will know.  떡볶이 really comes into its own when you combine it with some deep-fried squid, sweet potato, and those little noodle rolls (I don't know what to call them in English).

Fish Cake (오뎅) - good for a quick snack and a winter-warmer with the fishy hot broth it is cooked and kept in.  Not spicy and dipped in soy sauce it is a favourite with many other foreigners I know.

Something Sweet... 


Red Bean Fish-Shaped Snack (붕어빵) - crispy sweet-battered coating with sweet red bean paste inside, really great in winter.

Sweet Korean Pancake (호떡) - sometimes comes with a few nuts in the middle, again really nice when the weather is a bit chilly.

Sweet Red Bean Dumpling (국화빵) - I have to admit, I was very sceptical of the widespread use of red bean in stuff when I first arrived here, but it has really warmed on me; it is a little healthier than just loading everything with sugar or jam and it is not too sweet.  This particular one is my favourite and is similar to 붕어빵 but less crunchy, a bit eggier and a bit doughier.

For a Great Lunch

Rice Soup (국밥) - having real difficulty getting a good translation of some of these foods into English, so this is not as bland as it sounds in English.  국밥 comes in many different varieties and, as always, is usually very healthy.  I like my local 콩나물국밥 restaurant (bean sprout rice soup, much better than it sounds) and 순대국밥 (noodles stuffed in pig intestine in rice soup, again this really tastes much better than it sounds).

Cold Noodles (냉면) - this can come in a few varieties, but the spicy one is my favourite (비빔냉면). This is mainly eaten in summer, for obvious reasons in that it is cold.

Koreanised Chinese Food Spicy Seafood Noodles and Black Sauce Noodles (짬뽕 and 짜장면)
Very popular in Korea and is often ordered as a delivery for lunch.  The former gets a real sweat on and the later tastes really good when you mix the left-over sauce with rice.

The Cheap Cuts that are so Delicious

In many countries in the world the history of some of the most popular foods has been intertwined with poverty.  People living in hard times tried to make the cheapest and most abundant ingredients go a long way and flavour them to make them taste good.  This is how many of Korea's most sought after and tasty dishes today came about.

Pork/Beef Spine Potato Soup (감자탕) - I have to admit that I find it more than a little fiddly and frustrating trying to scrap away the meagre amount of meat hiding between the vertebrae in this dish, but the broth is truly delicious.  Like a little boy, I usually let my wife take all the meat off the bone for me, but I could just as easily simply eat without bothering with the meat.

Pig Intestine - this was once very cheap but now, due to its popularity, not so much.  I have never been too keen on this as there is a definite flavour of poop in it that I just can't seem to like that much.

Chicken Feet (닭발) - again, like the pig intestine this was once very cheap but now is a little expensive, although still very affordable.  Spicy chicken feet is one of my favourites and has a chewy, crunchy texture that is quite unique.

Sundae (순대) - most commonly pig intestine on the outside with a filling, but when ordered at a street food stall, comes in a few different varieties, usually the leftover parts of a pig or cow, i.e. the heart, lungs, intestine, liver and kidneys.  Many people, especially foreign visitors can't stomach this, but although I am a vegetarian back in England I have no problem tucking into this as long as there is a little bit of samjang (common Korean table sauce 쌈장) to hand.


Pigs Trotters (족발) - often served sliced, I have to admit I have never tried it, but my wife assures me that it is amazing.

Again, you can see that all these foods are derived from the parts of animals that are normally thrown away. Also, even going back not that long ago Korean people could not afford to waste any food at all and this is where this admirable attitude of not wasting food comes from.  I have noticed that there is not much of a sense of humour about food wastage either in Korea.  On many occasions, Koreans I have known have turned their noses up at food fights on Western TV shows and films and festivals like La Tomatina in Spain. On the whole, Koreans certainly do take their food very seriously and appear to have a genuine love for it and this is something that I share with them.

Korean people also harvest and eat a wide variety of foods, many of which Westerners find repulsive, but again I think this is a admirable trait as we really can't afford to waste any sources of food in this day and age.  In part 2, I will start with some of the more ambitious Korean delicacies, yet another reason to enjoy Korean food culture, this time though, perhaps not for the flavour.