Would you Eat in a Vegan Korean Restaurant

A tour around the foods in vegan restaurants in Korea by Hak-Nyeong Hong and his friends

The popularity of the vegetarian diet is increasing day by day. According to the vegetarian community, the Korean Vegetarian Federation, the domestic vegetarian population last year is estimated to be between 1.5 and 2 million. Compared to only 100,000 people in 2008, it has grown about 20 times in the last 10 years. There is a vegan road with restaurants and café for a vegan in Seoul, South Korea. Increasing numbers of people are moving toward vegan diets due to health, animal welfare, or environmental concerns [1]. However, some consumers think meat alternatives are associated with “tofu”, “vegan and vegetarian”, and “disgust”. The primary barriers to the consumption of meat alternatives so far have been identified as unfamiliarity and lower sensory appeal [2, 3]. Therefore, I decided to visit vegan restaurants with my friends and evaluate the sensory part of meat alternatives. I thought my friends and I would objectively evaluate the taste and texture of meat alternatives because we are not vegetarian and have never eaten vegan food.

We visited two restaurants for vegan. The first restaurant is “FOOD DOES MATTER (FDM)” that offers healthy and environmentally beneficial food based on vegetarian food. It sells only vegan menus made with 100% vegetable ingredients without butter, eggs, milk, and fresh cream as well as meat and seafood. We ordered the Chipotle burger and Mushroom scallop Garlic pasta. The Chipotle burger made with the burger patty made by FDM, coconut milk cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, eggplant bacon, avocado, mustard, chipotle mayo. The chef said that FDM patty is based on “Beyond Meat (30%)” mixed with more than 13 types of vegetables (70%) such as sweet potato, potato, and some grain. We said the taste and texture of this burger were different from the normal burger. When chewing the patty in the burger, it made feel sticking to the teeth and did not feel juicy. We guessed the difference in the texture of the patties due to the proportions of the ingredients with more vegetables than Beyond meat. However, I liked the eggplant bacon which had a very similar smell of smoke from real bacon. The appearance of eggplant bacon looks like real bacon! The mushroom scallop garlic pasta consisted of king oyster mushroom scallop, burnt bell pepper, eggplant, tomato, garlic, cashew parmesan, pepperoncino. Unfortunately, the taste of king oyster mushroom was not similar to that of the scallop. Because the cooked scallop has a very chewy and soft-fleshy texture. I thought it would be better if the texture of the food is improved to replace the real meat, even though it provides rich nutrients.

The second restaurant is “Monk’s butcher” which sells menus such as Beyond burger made from Beyond Meat patties and the traditional western dishes by making for a vegan. We ordered the Beyond Monk’s burger, Homemade gnocchi with vegan beef crumbles, and Fried Lion’s Mane mushroom. The beyond monk’s burger is made with Beyond Meat, romaine, tomato, red onion, grilled onion, and vegan jalapeno mayo. The taste and texture of the patties were same as the real meat in the burger. So, my friends said if I hadn’t heard that it was made of plants, I would have thought it was a normal hamburger. I completely agreed with the opinion. Homemade gnocchi with vegan beef crumbles composed of homemade potato gnocchi, vegan beef crumbles, spring green pesto, and sweet pumpkin puree. The taste of beef crumble is exactly the same as a real beef crumble. It was disappointing that the chef couldn’t tell what it was made of. The hardness of meat and the crumble feeling was perfect. Fried Lion’s Mane mushroom is made of crispy fried Lion’s Mane mushroom coated with handmade garlic soy sauce. It looked like fried chicken coated with soy sauce. Although the taste was similar to that of the fried chicken, the texture was completely different. The texture was the texture of the mushrooms we know, and it was wrapped in fried powder, so it was a little moister. Overall, I was happy to eat all the food in this restaurant. This restaurant also serves more food if you bring your bowl. So, I felt that the restaurant considers many things for sustainability.

Comparing the two restaura

nts, I would like to recommend Beyond Monk’s burger at the second restaurant. This is because I felt the work of Beyond Meat that they want to make the taste and texture of real meat. To overcome the disadvantage of the sensory part of meat alternatives, I’d like to suggest that a restaurant or company that makes vegan food publishes the recipe of the food for a vegan. For example, the use of beetroot helps make juicy and reddish meat by Beyond Meat. If each person posts the ingredients or/and recipes that can make the taste and texture of real meat on SNS such as Instagram, it would be a great way to inform people who are unfamiliar with vegan food. These sharing economy platforms will help improve the quality of the vegetarian diet in the world.