Lino Made Us Do It!

Vegan Seoul Food!

On our first Saturday walking about, Ben and I found a sign for a Seoul Vegan Potluck (that we had litterally just missed time wise) that also pointed to a Seoul Vegan Potluck Facebook page.  Adeana, the site coordinator, has been nice enough to put together a basic guide for me and some resources so I thought I'd share!  I have Loved Loved Loved the food here, so many spices and nutrients and so flavorful.  Miso, Miso, Miso and Kimbab/Bibimbap (that I've also learned how to read in Korean!)! Delicious! More recipes soon!

Eating Out:

You can find food at most Indian places (they will make a customized dish for you with the ghee and/or yogurt). Also, most of the foreign places will have at least one dish. A few to note in 

Itaewon/HBC area:

Cassablanca- HBC- lentil soup, veggie sandwich

Porchetta-Between Itaewon and HBC- veggie sandwich, sweet potato fries

Res to Go- Between Itaewon and HBC American-style teriyaki

Taste of Thai- Between Itaewon and HBC- Thai

Buddha’s Belly- Between Itaewon and HBC- Thai

Wang Thai- Itaewon-Thai

Loving Huts (look them up on Happy Cow)

There are several Greek, Moroccan, etc. places with vegan options.

Taco Amigo- vegan refried beans and rice. Most things on the menu can be made with mushrooms instead of meat. The owner was vegan at one point so he understands.

Korean-

Kimbap restaurants- kimbab (watch carefully and instruct that you just want veggies (yachae)\

Bibimbap with no egg or meat is always a good option.

Dokdori muk – acorn jelly salad

Jap chae (usually has meat, but sometimes you get lucky)

Websites:

http://wholeistic.wordpress.com/

http://www.happycow.net/gmaps/searchmap.php

http://www.cnngo.com/seoul/eat/7-restaurant-options-seoul-herbivore-868953

http://aliensdayout.com/ (good Korean recipes here)

www.aliensbakeshop.com
http://aliensdayout.com/veg-eateries

Seoul Veggie Club on facebook

http://pumpkinfacekorea.weebly.com/blog.html

Meal Delivery-

http://pumpkinfacekorea.weebly.com/blog.html (will be delivery at some point but now pick up in Itaewon)

www.aliensbakeshop.com

www.highstreet.co.kr (not sure if they deliver the pre-made meals)

 http://gringoskorea.com/  Burritos that you can freeze (ask for no cheese)

GROCERY- All department stores and Emarts have organic veggies and quinoa (but expensive). There are also Orga stores all around-I usually stumble upon them but here is one link about it : http://wholeistic.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/orga-whole-foods/

Itaewon-

High Street Market sells vegan lasagnas, burgers, cakes, muffins, cheesecakes, pesto, quinoa salads, almond milk

Foreign food mart- All sorts of everything! Dried beans, pastas, sauces, cilantro, hard to find herbs and spices, etc.

Grocery Delivery-

E-mart

Veggie Hill

http://veggiehill.com/html/index.php?PHPSESSID=c6e201685cd79e7f4785866bda8b3c8b

www.highstreet.co.kr

Rocks of Seoul

In all our walking around and looking at the ground (and walls) as scientists and engineers do, the question of what the heck we're looking at has come into play.  Here are a few of the choices (actual stone paths TBD):

Granite from Yosemite (pic credit) which is a felsic igneous rock containing a high silica content, greater than 63% SiO₂ (examples granite and rhyolite)

Close-up of gabbro specimen; Rock Creek Canyon, eastern Sierra Nevada, California. (Granite) (photo credit)

Basalt (photo credit)

Tuff (photo credit)

Here are some resources for rock identification (From Laboratory Manual in Physical Geology)

Recipe - Kimbab (Vegetarian Sushi)

We ate out when trying to go to the Immigration Office the other day and I got Vegetarian Kimbab for lunch.  Not only did a full roll cost 1,500 Won, but it was delicious! Here's a Recipe for you from c How Divine! 

Vegetable Gimbap Recipe
Makes 4 gimbap rolls

Ingredients
4 sheets laver

Gimbap Rice*
4 cups cooked brown rice (short grain)
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
1 tsp agave nectar or sugar (optional)
1/2 tsp salt

Filling*
1 carrot, julienned
5 oz. baby kale (or spinach)
4 long strips of takuan or danmuji (pickled radish)
6 oz portobello, sliced thinly
1 tsp tamari
1 tsp agave nectar or sugar
salt and pepper
canola or grapeseed oil for the pan

1. Sauté carrots until crisp tender. Add a pinch of salt and mix well. Set aside. Sauté kale until it just wilts. Add a tablespoon or two of water to speed up the process. Add a pinch of salt and mix well. Set aside.
2. Sauté mushrooms until lightly browned. Add a pinch of salt, teaspoon of tamari, and teaspoon of agave nectar. Mix well. Remove from heat once all of the liquid has been absorbed. Set aside.
3. Spread out the rice in a thin layer to let it cool until it’s comfortable to touch. Once cooled, mix the rice and the rest of the ingredients for the gimbap rice in a bowl. Mix gently being careful not to crush the rice.
4. Place a piece of dried laver on a bamboo mat. Spread out 1 cup of the gimbap rice over 3/4 of the laver, leaving the 1/4 of the laver farthest from you empty. Place a layer of carrots, kale, mushroom, and pickled radish. Try to stack the filling ingredients on top of one another. Roll away from you by pulling up on the edge of the bamboo mat closest to you, and folding the rice and laver over the filling. Squeeze and roll again creating a nice round cylinder, peeling back the bamboo mat as you roll. Roll tightly. It’s kind of like rolling a cigar (well, not as tightly). Repeat with rest of the rice and laver.
5. Cut the gimbap into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces with a sharp knife. Wipe the knife as necessary with a paper towel soaked in some oil. Serve on a plate or in a bento box. Enjoy your gimbap! You will have some filling ingredients left over. If you do, make some bibimbap or bibim guksu with them with some gochujang sauce.

*Cook’s Note: When making gimbap, make sure the rice you are using is short grain. Short-grain rice is stickier which is necessary for the sushi to keep its shape. Some markets carry “sushi rice,” which is just short-grain, white rice. If in doubt, “sushi rice” is a safe way to go. And you can use as much or as little vegetable fillings as you want. It’s up to you. However, if you are a novice at this, it will be easier to roll with less filling. Additionally, you can add avocado slices.

Squid vs. Octopus

Ben and I were trying to decide whether we were finding squid or octopi in the tanks outside of some of the restaurants so I decided to find a good answer.  This site had some pretty good comparisons and made the distinction a little easier to tell!  Did you know that Octopi like to kiss!?!? 

Octopus	Squid
About:	Octopus is a cephalopod with eight arms. It is a head-footed animal	Squid is a cephalopod with eight arms and two tentacles arranged in pairs. It is a head-footed animal
Anatomy:	An Octopus has a mantle, a head, 8 arms endowed with 1 or 2 rows of suckers but no hooks or sucker rings	A standard Squid has 2 fins, a mantle, a head, 8 arms and 2 tentacles each endowed with hooks and/or suckers or sucker rings
Fins:	Most octopi do not have fins, though some deep water octopuses may be the exceptions.	Squid have 2 fins on their heads
Shell:	Octopi do not have any shell or stiff bone in their body	Squid possess a stiff structure known as a pen, which acts like a flexible backbone
Live in:	Octopi live in dens on the sea floor	Squid live in the open oceans
Diet:	Octopi eat bottom dwelling Crustaceans.	Squid eat fish and shrimp.
Blood:	blue	blue
Class:	Cephalopod	Cephalopoda
Phylum:	Mollusca	Mollusca
Order:	Octopoda	Teuthida
Superorder:	Octopodiformes	Decapodiformes
Kingdom:	Animalia	Animalia
Sub Class:	Coleoidea	Coleoidea
Species:	300	298
Size:	Octopuses range in size from 1cm to more than 5m	Average Squid no more than 60cm Giant one up to 13m, some reported even 20m (66ft.)
Nature:	Octopi are solitary in nature and always live alone	Squid maybe solitary or may live in schools
Catching and Eating Their Prey:	Octopi grab their prey and pierce through its shell and inject paralyzing venom into it. Dissolves and loosens meat with saliva	Squid catch food with their two long tentacles and eat it in chunks.
Lifespan:	1 to 3 years	9 months to 5 years
Geographical Distribution:	In salty water of the tropics to the temperate zones.	In salty water of the tropics to the temperate zones.
Plural:	Octopodes (Octopi)	Squid (when referring to a collective); Squids (when referring to 2 or more species of squid)

Musicians - 10cm Americano

Ben has made a point to drink an Americano whenever possible and after Lino told us the lyrics while out at dinner last night and I've deemed this Ben's new theme song!

Musicians - 2NE1

Some samples from Korean radio stars 2NE1!

Won some fruit?

Won is the unit of money here. 1,000 won equates to about a dollar. While a dollar buys just about the same amount of stuff in America as it would here, there are some slight differences. Here's fruit as an example (photos by Ben):

Korean Alphabet

After some self research using one of my dictionary Apps, I started trying to teach myself Korean! Which worked for a few words and sounds but not quite all of them.  Most of yesterday was spent trying to depict the other sounds and character combinations and it worked quite well! I can read about half of the words here accurately and hope to be able to read almost all of them shortly.  Incase you're wondering, here are some characters and their sounds (more information and pictures can be found here, podcasts and phrases here and a fun game to learn the sounds is here):

 Pronunciations: 

Some other sounds that aren't included are as follows:

ng - o that comes underneath other sounds

p - the eu over a yo symbol

Equus and the typical cars in Seoul

So what do the cars look like here?  Like many of the other Asian countries I've been to, the half sized trucks are pretty frequent and common (see below) but unlike the other countries, I haven't seen any of the typical Tata models and most cars driven are the same size as American mid-sized vehicles and are BMWs, Lexuses, Audis, Hyundais and many of the public vehicles run off of CNG or are electric vehicles.  There's also a car called the Equus which is an upscale Hundai.  I've only seen one van and hardly any 18 wheelers and keep questioning - Where's TESLA!??!?!  Check the photos and stats below for more info!  

(Pic from here)

(Pic from here)

(Pic from here)

(Pic and more information can be found here)

(Pic from here) 

In case you wanted some statistics (from Truth About Cars) :

Korea October 2011 Top 30

Pos	Model	Oct	%
1	Hyundai Avante	12,625	10.4%
2	Kia Morning	9,677	8.0%
3	Kia K5	9,138	7.6%
4	Hyundai Sonata	8,791	7.3%
5	Hyundai Porter	8,697	7.2%
6	Hyundai Grandeur	8,611	7.1%
7	Hyundai Grand Starex	5,175	4.3%
8	Chevrolet Spark	4,912	4.1%
9	Kia Bongo	4,476	3.7%
10	Kia Sportage R	4,370	3.6%
11	Samsung SM5	3,604	3.0%
12	Hyundai Tucson ix	3,299	2.7%
13	Kia Sorento R	3,286	2.7%
14	Hyundai Accent	2,326	1.9%
15	Kia Carnival R	2,262	1.9%
16	Samsung SM3	2,254	1.9%
17	Kia Forte	2,201	1.8%
18	Chevrolet Cruze	1,816	1.5%
19	Hyundai Santa Fe	1,724	1.4%
20	Chevrolet Orlando	1,612	1.3%

Korea year-to-date Top 30

Pos	Model	2011	%
1	Hyundai Avante	110,162	8.9%
2	Kia Morning	100,845	8.1%
3	Hyundai Grandeur	92,019	7.4%
4	Hyundai Sonata	85,190	6.9%
5	Hyundai Porter	82,779	6.7%
6	Kia K5	72,565	5.9%
7	Chevrolet Spark	54,055	4.4%
8	Hyundai Grand Starex	43,791	3.5%
9	Kia Sportage R	43,368	3.5%
10	Kia Bongo	43,024	3.5%
11	Samsung SM5	42,016	3.4%
12	Hyundai Tucson ix	35,739	2.9%
13	Kia Sorento R	33,833	2.7%
14	Kia Forte	29,706	2.4%
15	Samsung SM3	29,026	2.3%
16	Chevrolet Cruze	23,590	1.9%
17	Kia Carnival R	22,198	1.8%
18	Hyundai Santa Fe	21,492	1.7%
19	Kia K7	19,761	1.6%
20	Hyundai Accent	19,698	1.6%

Korea Imports Top 10 for September 2011

Pos	Model	Sep
1	BMW 520d	744
2	Mercedes E300	716
3	Nissan Cube	439
4	BMW 528	433
5	VW Tiguan	404
6	Audi A6	305
7	Mercedes CLS350	257
8	VW Golf	240
9	Toyota Camry	228
10	Ford Taurus	211