Paleo in Korea

In March this year I made a commitment to start eating more of a paleo diet. This was due to a couple of things, weight gain and slight food intolerance's. One Whole 30 later and some tweaks on my every day diet and I'm feeling pretty good, eating healthily and bloating a hell of a lot less.
Here's five things I've discovered through my experiments on being paleo in Korea.

1. It's tough, but possible. Being a teacher I have the same school lunches as everyone else. This means that some days are pretty good.

While other days can be very restrictive and down right depressing.

If you are looking to be strict about your paleo diet, then it might be worth thinking about opting out of school lunches and bringing your own. I did this during my whole30 and it made life a lot easier. I had to explain countless times to co workers about the concept but eventually its just became accepted and a thing that I do.

2. This ain't like healthy eating back home. With no oven, no slow cooker, limited fridge/freezer space and a shocking lack of knowledge about local produce, eating healthily in Korea can be a challenge. However, I learnt a few basics, such as making zoodles, pesto, pasta sauce and pulled pork in a rice cooker, and adapt those for a lot of meals.

3. Fresh, seasonal produce is amazing. I am lucky because I live just off a market street, so fresh fruit and veg is always available, and at much more reasonable prices than homeplus or emart. If you choose seasonal fruit and veg you usually get better value for money and a lot of the time its tastier too.

4. Organic is mindblowingly expensive. This is where I totally fail at the paleo diet. I actually live pretty close to an Orga. This is a korean organic wholefoods store, the organic food there looks beautiful, but is very VERY expensive. Also, this is NOT a healthfood store, which fooled and hugely disappointed me the first time I went in. This is where iherb steps in. I love you iherb (feel free to use my 10$ Iherb discount code: FWK839).

A glorious iherb haul. One of many.

5. Korean BBQ is your new best friend. This is what's going to keep you sane, this blessing means that you can still have a social life, meet and eat with friends whilst sticking to your paleo diet. Just keep in mind the dips and doenjang jiggae will have soy bean in it, if you're avoiding it.

If you enjoyed the pictures, please feel free to follow me on instagram paleoinkorea for daily pictures of paleo noms. Or hashtag your paleo pictures with #paleoinkorea.

구이가, 92ga (Korean barbecue)

We were tempted into this restaurant because we had walked past this bbq place a few times in Sincheon and it always looked busy.
They use coal in their barbecue and it's pretty cheap. Although you should keep in mind that they advertise the prices PER 100G. Not per serving. Most of the orders are actually around 150-250g.
The menu is pretty easy to figure out. Lots of pictures with an image showing what animal it's from.

samgyeobsal on the grill

We went for a pretty basic order of  라이브 삼겹살 - laibeu samgyeobsal (150g - 5500won) which translates to "alive belly". I'm gona go ahead and assume this means fresh 3 layer pork belly. We also ordered 돼지갈비 (멍석갈비) - dwejigalbi (meongseoggalbi) - (250g - 8000won) which is "pork rib (straw mat)". I have tried googling this and I can't find any sort of reference to any well know galbi dish using straw mats... Maybe it's aged on straw mats... maybe the pigs eat straw mats... or maybe something just got lost in translation. We also ordered rice and beer.

a popular korean bbq accompaniment - onions in some sort of sauce

The samgyeobsal was nice, not mind blowing. But the galbi was pretty awesome! The sides were good and looking at the menu again, I would really like to try some of their different meat and try out some of their awesome looking sides. Remember, as with all Korean restaurants, sides are refillable.
All in all, our meal came to 17500 won, that's 8750 won per person. Not bad for barbecue and it would be even cheaper if you held back on the beer.

If you want to check it out for yourself you can find all of their branches here.
But if you live near Sincheon (yay, we love that place) then here is an address and map for you.
서울 송파구 잠실동 188 1층 - 34 Baekjegobun-ro 7-gil (188 Jamsil-dong)



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소노야, Sonoya (Ramen)

Sonoya is a cheap, quick eat Japanese chain restaurant.

The branch we went to was inside Gangnam station. Sonoya can also be found inside Sinsa station, Jonggak station, Sinnonhyeon station and Noryangjin station (to name a few). Can you spot the trend? The fact that you’re eating inside the tube station adds to the “quick bite to eat vibe”.

The menu isn’t huge, which I like. We both opted for ramen. We got Miso ramen (미소라멘) and Tonkotsu ramen (돈코츠 라멘).  Phill got an extra side of Inari (유부초밥). 

The service was quick and simple, so we got our food amazingly quickly and intensely hot. 

The tonkotsu was pretty tastey, however, it was A LOT thinner than most tonkotsu I’ve eaten before. The meat was awesome. Which makes it even more sucky that you only get one piece. The miso ramen was good. The inari didn’t seem too fresh but they were OK too.

All in all, this place was good, but not amazing. The price is low and the portions are redunk, so there is a pretty good sense of value. Also, the fact that it’s in a lot of subway stations means that it’s a good option if you’re in a rush and just need to eat somewhere quick, but still want something fresh and hot. However, if you have a right hankering for authentic Japanese ramen, this is not the best place.

카모메, Kamome (Onigiri)

Kamome was my go-to lunch place over summer. It’s tasty, the kimbap/onigiri things are amazing, cheap and comically big. There are branches of Kamome all over the shop. This one is located in Bangi-dong.

Their menu can be a little bit confusing if you don’t read Korean too well, but if you grab a take-out menu (usually located next to the till) there are pictures.

I opted for the Kamome (카모메 세트) Set for 6000 won. This comes with your basic udong (카모메 우동) and your choice of aaannnnnnyyyy onigiri. I went for a mixed, this is just two of the fillings in one onigiri. There is a little part on the menu that shows you which combinations you can get (see red circle). I went for #6, tuna mayo and buldalk (spicy chicken). It was lush.
Phill went for Single Set (싱글 세트) for 8000 won. This comes with your choice of any udong and any onigiri. He chose fish cake udong (오뎅 우동) and tuna mayo. However, these actually work out cheaper if you get them seperately. Well done Kamome... you win.

odeng (fishcake) udong

mixed onigiri before munching

mixed onigiri mid munching

I’ve had Kamome several times from 2 different branches and never been disappointed, but I usually just get 2 onigiri, which is enough of a meal for me.
Also, there is a soup station and there are little plastic pots you can use for take out, awesome!!
TIP: When the menu says spicy (two chillies) they mean it!

광장시장, Gwangjang Market (Kimbap, Jeon)

This market had been on our 'must visit' list for a ridiculous amount of time, we finally made it out there and got to try the fabled mayak kimbap (마약김밥). Mayak being 'drug'. As in, the kimbap is meant to be so freakin good that you can't stop eating it.

We arrived at around 6pm on a weekday and unfortunately, although it's meant to be open until around 11pm, most shops were shut down or in the process of closing up. So we missed out on the silk etc. that this market is also famous for. Despite that, the food section of the market was still bustling and very much open. We both thought Gwangjang was awesome, it was loud, busy and reminded us of markets we've been to in South East Asia.

We figured that we should get kimbap from 'Kimbap Alley', but when we found it, there were only a few stalls that were shut down and it was confusingly detached from the other food section. So we found a little stall in the main food area that seemed dedicated to these tiny simple rolls of kimbap and ordered a portion (8 rolls for 2000 won).

They were ok, just very basic bite size kimbaps. What IS awesome though, is the wasabi liquid joy that you dip them in. And the adorable old lady making them.

Hazzar! On to the next stall! We sat down at a busy jeon (천 - korean pancake) joint and ordered bindaeddeok (빈대떡) for 4000 won. Bindaeddeok is mung bean pancake and what I really like is that they had a machine working and grinding the beans up at the stall.

We also ordered a bottle of makgeolli (4000 won). The bindaeddeok was AWESOME. The combination of makgeolli and bindaeddeok, even more awesome.

All together this came to 5000 won each. It wasn't a meal at all, just like... semi filling snacks. However, we did also see some fine looking kimchi mandu and some stalls actually cutting up the noodles to make kalguksu! I'd never seen this before, NOVELTY! Worry not, we will be going back to try these out!

Address: 88 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul

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가족회관, Gajeok Hwaegwan (Jeonju Bibimbap)

So, if you didnt know, Jeonju bibimbap is a kinda big deal here. It was even on the menu at Bangi Kalguksu!

We were lucky enough to get the chance to visit Jeonju (with a free bus - check it out! ) and what better thing to do than try out the bibimbap, straight from the source! The place we went to was based on recommendations and according to a local, has Michelin stars! Although I can't find nothing to support that claim...  None the less it’s very famous and has been around for yonks.

There are two items on the menu, Jeonju bibimbap and raw beef bibimbap. The main difference (we think) between Jeonju bibimbap and just plain old bibimbap is that the Jeonju comes with pine nuts, ginko nuts and topped with a raw egg (instead of the usual fried). We were on holiday and being fancy bitches so we went all out and got the raw beef bibimbap, for a shocking 15,000won each.

Now, that is kind of crazy for bibimbap, but I have 2 words for you. SIDE. DISHES. Holy crap, side dishes indeed!

I’m not a huge fan of bibimbap, so I wasn’t incredibly blown away. However the raw beef was really nice, it was awesome to have ginko nuts for the first time and we got to try such a large selection of side dishes that it made it worthwhile.

Oh yes and don’t forget to get your free coffee at the end, seriously, that little paper cup of joy amazed me. It tasted hazlenutty.

Here’s the address: Gajeok Hwaegwan (가족회관), Wansan-gu Joongang-dong 3-ga 30, Jeonju.

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아우네, Aune (Kimchi Jjigae)

It took a silly amount of time for us to discover this kind of korean dining. I like to called it DIY. I love kimchi jjigae but previous to this place I'd only ever had it as a singular order in a dolsot, which is still amazing, but I like to think of this as the next step up in kimchi jjigae consumption (whats next?!).

This place is amazingly popular, even during Chuseok when Seoul was dead, this place was full. They also have an incredibly daunting menu!

We ordered the small kimchi jjigae (김치찌개) for 13,000. Then we ordered ramyeon (라면사리) for 2,000 to go with it. So, out comes a huge pot with your jjigae inside. In fact, it was so full that we had to make sure it was in fact the small order and not the large. It was HUGE. Then you need to take those scissors and tongs and cut up all the big bits of meat and kimchi you find. Put in the ramyeon and let that cook a little while. Next, eat all the glorious jjigae goodness.

What's really awesome about this style of eating is the fact that you totally control the cooking, so if you get a little full, you can turn the heat right down and just snack on it as you go.

So, if you hold back on the beers (unlike us) then it would each come to 7,500. Which is just flipping ridiculously cheap.

Here's the address: 서울시 송파구 방이동 93-14.

WARNING: Not sure if it goes for all DIY jjigaes, but we've been here twice and the first time we got a less spicy and smaller (but still large) jjigae and the second time was huge and face burningly spicy. So, I think that it might vary massively depending on whose making it!