Healthier AND unhealthier aspects of life in South Korea

I have thought about this over my years here.

I eat a lot more raw greens, garlic and onions; yet I breathe a lot more bad air.

I eat a lot more anti-inflammatory seafood, but I eat a lot more inflammatory instant noodles.

I walk a lot safer streets on urban nights; yet I drive more dangerous roads due to taxis, trucks and buses from hell.

And so on.

Walking should be high up on the list of healthy things, poor air quality for unhealthy aspects.

I just eat regular seafood and noodles.  I don’t try to light them on fire.  But I agree, noodles burn better than clams.

I just eat regular seafood and noodles.  I don’t try to light them on fire.  But I agree, noodles burn better than clams.

This is something that I used to get into. Those fresh live cockles and muscles were cheap and available in local super markets.
The cockles worked a treat in my pasta vongole.

Vanislander producing the goods here.

I often wonder what life would be like breathing clean air and seeing an animal once in a while.

I'm still amazed that as we approach 2022 Korean government don't require calories or nutritional information on ALL food items and drinks. Oh look some bulgogi sauce this has 'make your own calories and guess your own sodium content'.

A lot of Korean nutrition labels are good, but a lot of them are shit. They are size 3 font and smashed together at the end of the giant list of EVERYTHING on the package. ITs like cramming a page of a book into a 3cmx2m square. It's atrocious. Nevermind the fact that it's in a language I don't fully understand, that's not the point. The point is it sucks.

This? This is gold standard stuff.

As long as I get a heated sweet potato at 2am as an impulse point-of-purchase (POP) while going to the local convenience store (who am i kidding; back home we call them "corner stores"), all is good. Bokbunja helps the cardiovascular system, according to science, so sure, add it.

Unhealthy: a lot of restaurant and supermarket food in Korea is basically rotten.

Healthy: you'll lose weight because the food will go straight into the toilet instead of making you put on the pounds!

Healthy: you'll lose weight because the food will go straight into the toilet instead of making you put on the pounds!

Fiber, yeah. That's partially why Koreans live longer statistically (by a few years).

is "rotten food" haggar's "2.1"?

is "rotten food" haggar's "2.1"?

If it's not that, it's him describing Korean food as "dishes with weeds".

is "rotten food" haggar's "2.1"?

Dumb people on waygook: "oh yeah Korean food is so fresh. The food at Korean restaurants and grocery stores is definitely all fresh and 100% fit for human consumption."

Any Westerner with a brain who's spent 5 minutes in South Korea:

Dumb people on waygook: "oh yeah Korean food is so fresh. The food at Korean restaurants and grocery stores is definitely all fresh and 100% fit for human consumption."

Any Westerner with a brain who's spent 5 minutes in South Korea:

There's a middle ground between "It's all rotten" and "It's all fresh".

I don't think a person who claims Koreans are eating "weeds" has much credibility when it comes to discussing the state of food in the country.

One of the greatest testaments to Korean food culture is the VARIETY of fresh, clean prepped kinds of lettuce at every local supermarket. It is remarkable. And the height of nutrition.

Now, putting grilled fatty pork inside a lettuce leaf is pretty unhealthy, but one can sub garlic, onion, hot peppers and sauce instead.

WRONG! dmarteeno. it's obviously all rotten. that's why almost all foreign teachers willingly consume their school lunches every day (school lunches that they know to be rotten inside their big brains). mayorhaggar and all the other MENSA members know what kind of sick stuff is really going in there

WRONG! dmarteeno. it's obviously all rotten. that's why almost all foreign teachers willingly consume their school lunches every day (school lunches that they know to be rotten inside their big brains). mayorhaggar and all the other MENSA members know what kind of sick stuff is really going in there

Yeah, I wager that it is far more likely that the entire nation of South Korea is just one giant land of endemic salmonella and e-coli that somehow has bamboozled the WHO and the U.S. State Dept. into not realizing it. Certainly more likely than Mayor Haggar himself having a psychosomatic response and allowing his own personal dislike of the place to cloud his judgment.

Now, putting grilled fatty pork inside a lettuce leaf is pretty unhealthy, but one can sub garlic, onion, hot peppers and sauce instead.

How about using all of the above?

Love me some greasy pork with grilled garlic and gochujang. Or with grilled kimchi.

Where's all the rotting food in the super markets? Never had an issue.

Oddly, the only place I have had rotten vegetables was the 5-day market, where the green peppers sometimes are brown or black inside, the onions soft, shriveling and/or growing the green stalk and the tomatoes liquified inside.

Back home we used to go to the farmers' market to get fresher produce than supermarkets!

Avocados in Korea are pretty awful. 90% of the avos I bought in the supermarket went rotten even before ripening


Healthy: walking everywhere, public transportation, lots of hills

Unhealthy: air quality, long work hours, a lot of sugar in unexpected places