South Korea

[Josh]

Anyone know what the scene there is in terms of availability of decent meat n fat?

[reyyzl]

    I believe it's common there to eat raw liver and tartare.

[TylerDurden]

Raw fish is also a delicacy. I think in both Korea and Japan, live octopus is a national dish, so you might try that too.

[Josh]

Sounds promising, hopefully they will be open minded. I'm a bit concerned that they won't have grass fed stuff though...anyone know?

[TylerDurden]

When I go abroad, I'm less concerned re grassfed issues as it often takes lots of time and phoning to find suitable grassfed sources in any country. What I do instead is to buy raw wildcaught seafood to get the omega-3s, and then get some grainfed meats. If I visit a particular country enough times, though, I  invariably find suitable sources of grassfed as long as I or someone I know speaks the local language. If you don't know Korean you're sunk re grassfed unless you have a Korean-speaking friend who can trawl the local markets with you. I'm not sure if there is a grassfed-meat industry in South Korea, as yet, but even if there isn't, I'm sure there will always be some peasant-farmers who don't have the money or interest in purusing modern farming methods , who might have grassfed meats. At least that's what I've found in Italy.

[Josh]

Yeh thanks. I have the feeling that they don't have a native industry...but from searching apparently they were importing australian beef at some point, so maybe there's hope.

I may have to go there for a year and work. I hope I don't have to fuck up my raw paleo...it's going well

[laap]

Hi! 

This is my first post in these forums.  I'm about to move to Korea as well (or move back there more accurately--I lived there once before, about fifteen years ago) and I'm interested in this question.  Are you living in Korea now, Josh, and have you found good sources of grass-fed meat?  Any other issues?   

Chris

[goodsamaritan]

They eat raw octopus for fun.

Beef and egg, they sometimes serve raw in a restaurant and you cook it yourself.  So you can choose not to cook.  I've done that with friends.

[Josh]

Hi. I moved here a couple of weeks ago, near Seoul. Hit me up if you want to meet or info.

Seafood is good here, and the supermarkets have live crabs, mussels etc.

Grass fed meat is difficult. I have found somewhere in Seoul to get frozen lamb, which is presumably grass fed

I had the beef barbecue on the table - I just cooked it rare. You could eat raw if your friends weren't freaked out.

I heard there's a fish market in Seoul where you can get fresh raw fish brought to you. I want to try that.

That's where some of my friends have had the raw live octopus - they cut off it's tentacles and swallow it live. Sounds a bit nasty.

[Josh]

When I have a bit more cash, I'm going to try and find wild rabbits, birds etc. I think that's my best bet for any organs.

[Ioanna]

Josh, how are you liking your new home?

[Josh]

Hard to say. I have a few things to deal with at the moment and not explored much. The country itself is cool in some ways. I'm looking forward to finding cool things here.

[laap]

Hey, thanks for the reply.  I'm looking forward to living in Korea again, but also nervous about a few things--I'll be living with a family and can't exactly be too fussy about what I eat with them, but I am hoping to convert them (eventually) to some less toxic cooking fat than the soy oil I think they used to use.  What I wonder did Koreans traditionally fry in?  Lard or tallow probably?  I know cooking isn't probably the right topic for a raw paleo forum but it's a concern of mine! 

As for raw things, of course I'm looking forward to raw fish and beef, which is traditional.  There's an article all over the web about how New Zealand has been promoting its grass-fed beef in Korea--but they're not smart enough, apparently, to tell us where to find it! If you want to promote something, clue people in on how to get it! 

Anyway I'm not going to stress out too much at first--I'm going to just eat generally healthy food at first and then gradually get back into more and more paleo as I settle in.  If the same pattern holds as last time, I'll make lunch for myself, and that can be as raw and as paleo as I want, and then eat the dinner that my host family cooks.  But I'm not going to deny myself a bit of restaurant hopping!  I was just reading today about what looks like a fantastic sashimi place. 

Anyway, I'd be very happy to meet up if you want--I'll be there in October.