I’m back!! Geez, I feel like I’ve been out of the country forever. I had an absolutely amazing vacation filled with great food, amazing scenery, and so much fun. It’s bittersweet to be back home but I’m so happy to be reunited with our dogs again.
Every time I travel anywhere I get slightly nervous because of my food allergies, so I want to share how I navigated around them on this trip. I talked about it a little bit about it on my last post but I thought it would be helpful to share what I ate and the photos of the beautiful meals I enjoyed in South Korea, Japan, and Thailand. This first part, I cover both Korea and Japan. So, let’s get started before my jet lag takes over again and I have to take another nap on the couch!
South Korea
I’ve been to Korea so many times that by now, I know what food I should avoid. Now that my parents live there, I try to go and visit them as often as I can. I’m mostly fine with everything I eat there except marinades heavy in soy sauce and flour-based pancakes and noodles.
^^A typical homemade meal at my parents’. Mostly plant and fish based with a side of meat now and then. Seriously delicious.
^^Just because we ate a lot of veggies at home doesn’t mean we didn’t load up on Korean barbecue (my favorite!) when we ate out. We avoided ones heavy with soy sauce marinade because the gluten in it would cause me trouble.
^^Breaded and deep-fried seafood that only C and my parents enjoyed. Not something I can touch. I was jealous watching them eat it though. This was at a giant seafood market in Sokcho.
^^Deliciously spicy fish head stew ^^Another example of something I couldn’t eat… but how adorable are these? My favorite emoji made into a doughy dessert filled with chocolate. ???? They smelled so good!
^^I hardly ever eat corn now unless at a Mexican restaurant, but I had to eat it at Seoraksan, the mountains I used to visit all the time when I was growing up. I would always get a corn on the cob there so I was feeling nostalgic. Thankfully, corn is a grain that doesn’t bother me much and I can enjoy it now and then. I always try to look for non-gmo.
^^One example of the outside of a farm-to-table restaurant. All vegetables they served was grown organically literally in their backyard! I can’t ever get sick of Korean food, and I enjoyed eating both at home and out. I cooked a few times too, which helped me control the ingredients that I ate. I ate a ton of veggies at every meal, even when we were getting barbecue. Overall, it was easy to eat healthy and I enjoyed almost everything. It’s always good to go back to my birth country and eat the foods I grew up on. And food aside, Korea is just a beautiful place to be!
Japan
I’ll be honest. I don’t love Japanese food. Everything is a bit bland to me and I can only eat so much raw fish at a time. I have to really be in the mood for sushi for me to get it. Also, most of the dishes are drenched in soy sauce so I can’t eat a lot of it anyway. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the food was quite good, and the ingredients were very fresh. We were in a farm town called Aomori, so everything was local and organic. While I didn’t loooove my eating experience in Japan like I did in Korea or Thailand, it was still more enjoyable than I expected.
^^When in Rome.. My dad really loves Japanese beer and says he only drinks beer in Japan. Him and my mom go a few times a year because it’s an easy flight for them.
Because we were in a spa resort-y hotel where we were there to enjoy the local hot springs and to relax, I took advantage of the situation and took a break from carrying my camera everywhere. I don’t have more photos of the food, but we were only there for 3 days anyway. The meals they served at the hotel were a buffet style and had a ton of choices as well. They even marked common food allergens next to each dish which was very helpful!
Again, the food was decent but not my favorite. However, the beautiful scenery totally made up for it all! Check my Instagram for more photos of the amazing fall foliage I snapped.
Stay tuned for my next update on my favorite destination during the trip: Thailand!
Beautiful pics, thanks! There’s a useful app now that shows things like gluten in food products called Korean Convenience that I recommend.