Vegan/Vegetarian/Raw Food interest?

 Hello!
I was just curious if anyone is vegan/vegetarian and/or living a raw food lifestyle...

And if you know of any good restaurants or places to find healthy grocery goods?- such as organic produce/nut milks/cereals/vegetarian burgers

Also, in the dairy milk section in stores- does anyone know if stores sell almond or nut milks- that are not soy or dairy based? 

**Also, if anyone is interested in having a vegan/veggie/raw food pot-luck gathering- Let me know :) I'd love to organize one and have people get together and enjoy healthy good food! And if not interested in pot luck, would anyone like to meet for tea or coffee sometime that is vegan/vegetarian? 

I am some what new to the area, and am still seeking to meet like-minded people interested and/or know of the hot spots to find the healthy goods.

Thanks!

You can email me: [email protected]
Or text me at: 010-7346-4777

there are at least a few of us here

there are at least five vegan restaurants in busan.  in what part of town are you?  there are some imported fortified rice milks at the supermarkets.  as far as almond and nut milks i can not say for sure.  not a big fan of them, but you can always get a blender and make your own.  you probably new that already.  just buy a heavy duty one.  the one i bought is not powerful at all.  just to get you started, you can check out these websites:  www.lovinghut.com and  www.vegefood.co.kr. emart actually has their own brands of soy meatlike sausages and nugget things.  however, the emart in shinsaggae does not seem to carry them.  there are two VEGAN buffets in town that give you a good rendering and sampling of korean foods made with soy based things as well as a load of soups made without fish sauce.  you can also check www.happycow.net and find directions to one of them.  feel free to pm me to ask some specifics, as i feel like i am rambling enough already.  happy bibimguksuing to all

 Somewhat related, do you

 Somewhat related, do you know of a place to buy nuts, whole-grains, and plain yogurt? 

thanks,

George

yogurt

most of the big supermarkets (emart, megamart, gs mart, etc...) have plain yogurt.  they also have nuts, but i do not think any of them are raw nuts.  everything is roasted, i think.  check in the organic section of the different places.  as far a grains go, everywhere has whole grain brown rice, barley, an millet. what else do you want?  oats can be found online, lotte, and costco.  no luck with quinoa for me, but that doesn't mean it is not here somewhere.  anybody else know about any other grains? for george and the rest

Shinsegae

 Check out the international section at Shinsegae.  They have fine quality organic products...of course, it's incredibly expensive.

 Thanks for the

 Thanks for the tips! 

George,
I found raw almonds at costco once. It was a good deal on a decent size bag of them!
 

 

There is a nice veggie

There is a nice veggie restaurant in Seomyeon I am told. If you Goog;e around u should come across the info. I will ask my colleague tomorrow for the name.

Veggie Guide

There is a Veggie Guide on on the old Pusanweb, but it's very much in need of being updated (along with all of the other old guides). Will use info shared in this thread to get the update started.

I've been going to a Veggie buffet across from Bukyeong University.
On the map about here: http://bit.ly/aXjXDg
Decent variety of foods, good quality, very clean W9,500/person
Will note note the name next time and add more direction details.

If anyone else has info about veggie spots/resources, please post there here with as much detail as possible.
 

 

 

Regarding nuts Costco (as

Regarding nuts Costco (as mentioned above) has the best deals, selling walnuts, almonds and pecans (all not roasted). But it's difficult to get to and requires membership, so next best by a mile is Homeplus. They've recently had a great deal on half kilogram bags of almonds and Californian walnuts for 6 bucks and 10 bucks respectively.

I live a raw food style, I

I live a raw food style, I would say 90% of my diet consists of raw foods. I eat mostly veggies and fruit but also dairy and sushi. I actually havent heard of all these restaurants as I have my routines at home. But its heartening to see that they exist, maybe I'll go there sometime. In case anyones curious, ever since I switched to mostly raw foods Ive been a lot healthier and more energetic. :)

about the milk- there is rice

about the milk- there is rice milk everywhere just about and this week I found lacto free milk ;) pretty excited about that.

veggie place in kyungsung area

finally made it to the veggie buffet in kyungsung/pukyong university area.  everything tasted awesome.  the place was super clean and had lots of windows.  i say this because the place in seomyeon, which is very tasty, always seems dark and dank, all on account of the no window situation.  the kitchen was open and the place seemed very white, but that was probably just the floors and plates.  they offer more salad fixings than the place in seomyeon.  they even had matchstick raw beets.  ummm.  anyway, i could keep going with their goodness.  the little store had flaxseed oil, i think.  they had a flier for it outside.  not sure if they are 7th day adventists like the other place.  i tried to find out some information, but their english was worse than my korean.  'gogi opsayo'  received blank stares, but 'vegan' received a positive reponse.  it costs 9500 won.  open noon to 3 and 5:30 to nine. 

exit the kyungsung subway station on the paris bagette/dunking donuts side (think that is #5) and walk towards pukyong.  keep walking until you see the chef chen chinese place on your right, with pukyong across the street on your left.  i believe this will be the fourth 'street' you cross.  the set of two buildings you encounter on your right immediately after you pass the chinese place is what you want.  i say two buildings because it is one of those buildings with a parking garage on the first floor underneath them.  the first one has a coffee shop on the first floor and the second one will have a red and yellow sing for 'kyong languange institute' on it. enter through that door.  there is no english sign for the restaurant, but it says vegetarian buffet in korean.  it is on the fourth floor.  051-626-3478. 

hope these directions make sense.  it only takes five minutes or so to get there from the subway.  i walked around the area for an hour trying to find the place, as i only heard it was 'across from pukyong's main gate.'  the location is well before the main gate, but close to it.

also, anyone know where that veggie club is meeting in march?  i am not on facebook.  this would be a good place to meet.  one more thing, i thought i saw onion powder somewhere, maybe homeplus, but yesterday i had no luck.  anyone know where to get onion powder?

what a short post.  umm, free time

depressed vegan in Busan

After my first year here, I have to express my disappointment at the lack of good quality fruit, veg and groceries here, as well as the dismal lack of of herbs and spices. Despite the fact that shelves are all stacked with soya milk, they are all undrinkable - I find them all sweet and sickly. Emart did an Australian import which was organic and sweetened, but drinkable - that suddenly disappeared after a few months. They also stocked a nice selection of vegan ice-creams, but they have also recently disappeared from the freezer. The only edible bread seems to be from Ops - they do a decent French pain levain but that's about it. I keep onions in the fridge otherwise they rot very quickly. A market lady told me the reason for this - they keep them frozen for up to a year. A recent trip to south east asia made me suddenly realise how bad things are here culinary wise. I can't speak for meat eaters, but Korean food for me has no flavour - the food is bland, salty and highly spiced. I have checked out most of the vegan restos here - again, the choice is limited and at the end of the day I prefer my own cooking which isn't great. OK end of rant...if anyone can help me out of the gastric doldrums or knows where to get decent or organically grown produce (Costco is just a big Emart - don't know what the fuss is about) please help!

[email protected]

PS. I also really miss lovely juicy sultanas. The nearest thing here are rat droppings posing as raisins...(ok, now end of rant).

 

Re: depressed vegan in Busan

hey gerardius, homeplus in centum city has sultanas that are specifically labeled as such.  did not try them, but tesco is the 2nd largest grocery store in the world (maybe the biggest?) and most of their store brand stuff is groovy.  as far as vegan ice cream goes, different emarts stock different things.  the shinseggae emart has a decent selection of vegan ice cream.  maybe soy and rice milk varieties, but not 100% on that.  the bakery in the basement of shinseggae has better than decent bread, too, but it is pricey.  in the past couple of months costco has been stocking a pretty good demibagette in packs of six that they bake there under the umbrella of the labrea (california) bakery.  definitely not the korean bakery poor excuse for bread stuff.  anywho, maybe you can stop missing the sultanas if nothing else.  you can also get dates from dubai in ssasaang

what spices are on your list

spices are hard to find and some just do not exist here in busan.  what spices is it that you want?  emart has some stuff, but it is not the best place to look for things.  in what part of town do you live?  you can find sultanas in ssassang.  (which i cannot spell).  you can also find them at shinsaggae, i believe.  i did find that veggie article pretty informative.  you want soy milk?  why not make your own.  yes, some produce is lacking in flavor, but i suggest sticking to what is in season.  korean food is, in general, focussed on salt, some form of gochu, and fish sauce or its many relatives.  however, i think that the two veggie buffets are quite nice with their varieties of korean side dishes.  they seem less obsessed with red pepper paste as an ingredient.  generally, i make it a rule to steer clear of buffets, but when they are your only option, what can you do.  the one in kyungsung has shredded/julienne raw beets-always a treat, but something i am too busy to prepare at home.  anyway, please post exactly what you are looking for here and i will try and help you out.  not that i know everything, but i have spent a bit of time wandering around stores looking at foodstuffs.  i think there are many people on this site who do the same thing and everyone is usually pretty helpful.  one more thing, costco's greatest contribution is decent avacados-i am yet to have a bad one there.  everywhere else pales in comparison

Re: Vegan/Vegetarian/Raw Food interest?

My partner and I are interested in the above foods!

We arrived here in Busan just the other day and have only found the loving hut so far. We've had lots of yummy stuff at other places too though. If you want coffee or food meet up- that would be awesome. We are in Busanjin Gu

near Seomyun Junction


Matt

Re: Vegan/Vegetarian/Raw Food interest?

not sure if it is a new recipe or not, but denmark milk changed their packaging on the yogurt, so i had the new one translated today.  the plain yogurt has gelatin in it.  perhaps my earlier translations were wrong.  i do not know.  does anyone know of a gelatin(e) free yogurt brand?  sugar free would be great, too, but i think that will be impossible here.  thanks much

i would invest in a maker, but space does not allow

Re: Vegan/Vegetarian/Raw Food interest?

Hey, just saw your post. Have you checked out the Loving Hut in Seomyeon or Haeundae?  It's an awesome vegan restaurant.  I'm not vegan myself, but my good friend Meg is.  She's studying nutrition and would be a great resource for you!  She writes all about healthy food and cooking in Korea on her blog.  You should get in contact with her.  She'd be able to really help you find what you're looking for!  Her blog address is: http://www.empoweredway.net/

- Jill