Kimbap Nara

So I've been in Korea for 4 days now, I have three days of teaching experience under my belt, it's been snowing for two straight days, and I still have stitches in my head. But I'll cover all those things later, and for now just talk about food, and how I really haven't had much trouble with the gluten at all. I had no idea what to expect; since the opportunity to teach English here only just presented itself about 2 weeks ago, I didn't really do any research and just decided to kind of show up and see how things went. I assumed I would be doing a lot of my own cooking the way I had been in Thailand - somewhat of a hassle, but definitely still manageable. But upon arrival I did a quick Google search to find some advice from others living here on a gluten-free diet. The greatest revelation of all...Kimbap Nara, little Korean diners that have a few inexpensive options for us Celiacs. And these shops are everywhere - they are actually said to be "on every corner in Korea". Apparently there was one literally on the street outside of my apartment building. But it closed down a few weeks before we arrived, so we had to walk 2 minutes instead of 2 seconds to find one.

Entering the Kimbap shop, you find a giant menu on the wall written entirely in Korean. The range of dishes is clearly extensive; unfortunately no one in the shop speaks a word of English, which pretty much limits you to pointing and guessing. But E lived in Korea for 2 years in the past and knows just enough of the language to order and successfully receive the dishes that she asks for. Having lived in Asian countries before, this is definitely not as easy as it sounds. I remember my friends and I were all eating gong bao ji ding (Kung Pao Chicken) basically everyday the first few months that we were in China a couple years ago. Maybe because it was one of the few dishes that we knew how to order, or maybe because it was so loaded with MSG that we were all hopelessly addicted to it. Some questions just have no answers.

Anyway, the first dish that I tried, kimbap, the staple at these restaurants, is kind of like sushi. Steamed rice is rolled up inside of sheets of dried seaweed with a bunch of ingredients inside - you can choose from tuna, ham, imitation crab sticks, cucumber, spinach, carrots, and pickled radish among others. I stayed away from the ham and crab but didn't have any problems with any of the ingredients that I chose. The kimbap roll is sliced up into thin little discs that you eat with your chopsticks, and unlike with sushi, there is no glutenous soy sauce in the equation, so you're not even missing out on anything when you eat them. Best part about these delicious things is that they are like $2 for an entire roll. I'm finding that it's actually cheaper to eat in the restaurants in Korea than it is to cook for yourself...groceries, specifically meats, are quite expensive.

My favorite dish, dolsot bibimbap, is served in an extremely hot stone bowl, and consists of steamed white rice, a variety of steamed vegetables (cucumber, zuccini, soybeans, mushrooms, etc.), fried egg, and gochujang, which is a red chili paste. When the dish comes out you need to immediately start stirring everything together so that the rice and egg do not burn and stick to the hot stone bowl, but after about 2 minutes everything is mixed together and so delicious. I was a little bit worried about the gochujang potentially being glutenous, in my brief research I had read some mixed reports, but I haven't had any issues thus far. Living a gluten-free lifestyle in Korea hasn't been nearly as challenging as I imagined it would be...at the very least, the first few days have been extremely encouraging.