Seoul - city of... sugar/Seul - miasto... cukru!

 Just before going to South Korea we watched a short documentary about "health obsession" among koreans. We were impressed how public health sector encourage people to eat healthy and exercise in a very organised and methodic manner, focusing especially on older people. Apparently, Hyundai even created its own catering factory to ensure that employees would get a healthy, balanced meal every day, and went further, offering their meals for further distribution. So we got this image of Korea being a mekka of healthy food and healthy people. In fact, they are a population with the second highest longevity in the world, right behind Japan, and of course aspiring to become the first. I was really curious to see how this looks like in every day life of Koreans, what they put on their plates and what habits they have.

It started pretty well - on our 1,5 hours flight from China, we got a really nice, warm lunch - definitely much better than what we ate in Chinese Airlines. They took our dietary requirements very seriously, we could choose from several different meat-free options and the food was fresh and nourishing. We were probably the only Europeans in the plane and everyone around did look rather on the slim side, indeed. They also had really nice magazines in English with travellers' stories and many outdoor activities suggestions.

So after over a week of eating pastries and slightly heavier dishes, I was ready for a detox in the country of healthy food! After landing, on the way to the metro, we stopped in a convenience store to get some snacks. I put my favourite phrase in the translator (I am vegetarian, no meat) and asked some girl to help me find something suitable in the fridge. Here came the first disappointment - with a very apologising face, she told me that there was nothing for me in there. Well, health and vegetarianism may not always go together, I thought. But then I looked around and most products in the store were Asian versions of our popular, not-so-healthy snacks - chrisps, chocolate bars, candies, sodas... I ended up with a steam bun filled with sweet red beans paste and a nut tea (which quickly became my favourite drink, but was really sweet) . Florian was much more lucky and got a tuna sushi - for me there was no savory option available. 

We didn't make the best first impression on our host - due to our snack break and small ticket machine issues (welcome to the world of a foreign alphabet!) we were 1h late at our meeting point. On the other hand, he showed us real Korean hospitality and spent this hour freezing outside in front of the metro station and waiting for us... He didn't seem angry though and just admitted that he got a bit cold. First hint about Korean way of dealing with emotions. He offered some local tea (nut!, bean or sweet potatoe) and invited us for dinner with his friend. This time we were really lucky - there were 2 beds with a plenty of blankets ready for us and a wonderful friend - a heater! After a quick visit in Quatar, Korea did feel rather cold, so we definitely appreciated the 'warm welcome'!

When we all got warm, it was time to go, explore the neighbourhood and... get some more food! We started with the most representative place for local products - an outdoor market! What we could find there was quite surprising, though - a lot of meat, very expensive fruits and vegetables (all packaged in plastic bags!), seaweed sheets packed in quantity that would serve us for few years, a lot of sweets and candies and all sorts of scary sea creatures. I gave up on searching for healthy options and got my first bungeo - ppang - a fish - shaped small cake filled with red bean paste, it was so good! 

Our host actually turned out to be on a diet, so we went to a small place serving more healthy food - he admitted that traditional Korean dishes were not that healthy, though. We passed by typical barbecue restaurants (nothing for us there), fast food places and quite packed bars. In the end, I felt like the "health obsession" concept was slightly exaggerated... Especially when it got to the desert and we had a huge bowl of bingsu - shaved ice with condensed milk and nut powder topping. The place was full and you could see that people had really sweet tooth - even a herbal tea we ordered tasted like syrup!

I got that koreans liked sweets - in the end most people do anyway. I was quite happy when our host was not surprised by the fact I eat porridge every morning and brought me to the right section in the shop. I could choose from pumpkin, red bean and... mushroom - and all of them were sweet! And then it became even more surprising - everything I expected to be savory was sweet as well! Kimbap (sushi-like roll), tteokbokki (thick rice pasta in spicy tomatoe sauce), gyeran - ppang (small bun with cooked egg inside) - were all really sweet. I do have sweet tooth, but I started missing soy sauce...

Luckily, when we left Seoul and went to Korean countryside close to Busan, the flavours changed a bit. We had a traditional lunch consisting of a fermented bean soup (doenjang jjigae), a bowl of rice and many side dishes. There was still some sweetness there, but also many fermented foods, bringing back nice, savory flavours.

The mystery remains unsolved, though. With all that sugar - how koreans manage to live long and healthy, without developing diabetes or getting overweight? I guess we will have to come back to find out!