This is the tenth and last in a series on how to get by as a vegan or vegetarian in rural Korea. ― Ed.


One surprising thing about vegetarianism is that you will be more hungry, at least for the first few months. This is your body adapting to a new set of rules and it is not permanent. Most research suggests that eating something every three hours will help you lose weight, and plant matter (except grains) isn’t high in calories, so feel free to indulge.

Get some cherry tomatoes (“bang-ool tomato”). Rinse, pluck the stems, and salt lightly for a great snack for work or a short hike. If you want, carrot or cucumber sticks also work well, but cucumber slivers quickly go soft and unpleasant if not kept in water.

“Gim” or roasted, oiled seaweed is nearly one-quarter fiber, but as it’s also one-sixth fat it’s best not to rely on it as a staple food. Any food that leaves you unable to grasp a pencil tends to be high in fat, and gim is definitely one of those.

As a snack in moderate amounts, though, gim can satisfy the cravings for potato chips at a fraction of the calories. But be sure to pack the leftovers in tupperware or a zip bag and use them in one or two days. Gim quickly absorbs water from the air and becomes a chewy, unenjoyable green mess.

Here are two easy options for more substantial snacks. First, take some leftover rice and put it into the middle of a square of gim, wrap and eat, like a mini kimbap.

Second, I must recommend an original invention of which I am quite proud. Take one or two slices of kim and put them between slices of bread. Behold: the gim sandwich, in all its glory!

This snack has gotten me strange looks from Koreans and expats alike, but let me assure you: though dry, it is quite tasty. Hiking? Pack the ingredients and combine them later. And especially if you want a veggie snack that takes no prep and goes well with beer (read: after a long day), this can’t be beat.

We’ll end this collection of columns with the first meal of the day. Just because Korea isn’t very “breakfasty” doesn’t mean you don’t have to be.

Use leftover fruit for pancakes or smoothies. Vegan pancakes are easy but I wouldn’t be the first to describe them as “intestinal glue.” They’re little more than flour and soy milk, after all.

For smoothies, try about 1/2 a banana. Add ground flax seed for fiber and protein powder if you want. Fill the remainder with orange or pineapple juice. This is a great way to use bananas if you live alone and can’t go through a whole bunch ― peel, break and freeze them when they turn deep brown and you have an instant breakfast in the making. (I credit Caroline Barsellotti of Halla University for this idea.)

You can get whey protein powder in exercise equipment shops here; the vegan stuff you’ll have to order. The people at Nutribiotic will take phone orders and ship here, but due to the size of the container expect quite a bill, which they will warn you about beforehand.

You can use other fruit. If you froze some kiwis or strawberries when you couldn’t eat them all, preferably after washing and chopping them, add those bits to your smoothie for new colors and flavors.

That last point brings the “moral” of this now-perishing series: Don’t just follow; experiment. I’m far from an expert but some of my favorite meals have come from just throwing things together, thinking “Why not?” If it’s about to go bad, or might work, throw it in. If it doesn’t work you’ll suffer once. If it does, you’ll eat it for a lifetime.

By Darren Bean!

Darren Bean! is a former prosecutor and lecturer in the department of Criminology at Chosun University. He can be reached at themagicbean@hotmail.com. The exclamation mark is part of his legal name. ― Ed.