Korea vegetarian - Reading beef, pork, chicken, seafood in Korean

Plant oriented diet is getting more popular world-widely. One thing getting vegetarians or vegans hesitating to travel is propably food matter.

Korea might carry “food description” issues in this context. It’s one of interesting countries for travel lovers though, not many restaurants provide English descriptions about their menu.

That is how I am writing this article now. I’m to dedicate this writing to my vegan and vegetarian friends who want to check out my country Korea, but manage to order food in restaurants.

 

 

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Why not much vegetarian culture in Korea

Koreans has passed the era of civil war in past decades. Even before that, food was not sufficient all the time - guessing due to plunders and wars. Well, food supply is no longer problematic issue in contemporary society, yet I learned every single grain is valuable by my parents. No matter it’s plant or animal, edible ingredients allowed us to live on are gifts for us. I’m saying this to say this would be one of reasons why we don’t have vegetarians, vegans socially.

On top of that, basically Korean foods have developed plant & seafood based recipes historically. Like you know, “Bibimbap” is composed of several mountain herbs, sesame oil and Gochujang(chilli paste). Adding meats is optional. Additionally, most of stock is made from anchovies, dried kelp, and vegies. Basically, vegetables and seafoods are taking a large portion in Korean food.

However, restaurants tend to use more meats for better flavor and better sales nowadays. So, it sounds right time to go back to our own purpose - how to read meat kinds in Korean menu board.

Common meat ingredients in Korean

Once you can recognise words for beef, pork, chicken reading Koran menu board, complexity in your mind would go away. Except one thing, the words indicating them are not only one each. Thus, I will list down those words below.

 

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Meat

To begin, let's check out what means 'animal meat' first.

- 고기 gogi animal meat
- 육- yug animal meat

'고기' is the most general word for animal meat. '육' is a kind of synonyms for '고기'. This one-syllable word is originated from Chinese letter, and then, commonly used in Korean words with compination of other Chinese letter. To illustrate, '육류' has the meaning of "meat kind" (animal meats only. not seafood).

 

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Beef

On the food menu, if you find these words, that means the food contains beef.

- 소 so
- 소고기 sogogi
- 쇠고기 soegogi
- 암소 amso
female cow
- 젖소 jeojso
milk cow
- 우- woo-
Sound of chinese letter for cow/beef
- 우육 woo-yug
beef
- 한우 hanu
Korean origin cow, best quality

'소' means both cow and beef generally. Beside, '소고기' and '쇠고기' specify beef. In certain food names, the meaning of 'beef' is written as shortened Chinese letter form, which is '우-'. For example, '우족' means leg of beef, and '우육' is beef meat itself as if '소고기'. FYI, '우삼겹' is the part between brisket and marbled in beef cut.

 

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Pork

Pork is also one of common ingredients in Korea.

- 돼지 dwaeji
- 돼지고기 dwaejigogi
- 암퇘지 amtwaeji
female pig
- 돈- don
Sound of chinese letter for pork/pig
- 돈육 don-yug

'돼지' means both pig and pork generally, and '돼지고기' is pork specifically. In Chinese letter based Korean words, the word 'pork' is written as '돈-'. For instance, '돈육' has same meaning with '돼지고기'. Additionally, if there's no further information than 'xx고기' in menu, the meat possibly be pork.

 

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Chicken

Now, it’s turn for chicken.

- 치킨 chikin
- 닭 dak
- 계- gae

The english word ‘chicken’ is used as it is - ‘치킨’ is that. ‘닭’ is original Korean word which sounds ‘dak’. ‘계’ is the Chinese character based letter for chicken, which is used in the middle of word. Famous Korean food ‘삼계탕’ is one of usage examples.

 

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Fish

Fish is not included in the notion of ‘고기(meat)’. It has its own name.

- 생선 saengseon fish
- 물고기 mulgogi fish

These are all fish names
- 고등어 godeung-eo mackerel (Scomber)
- 삼치 samchi mackerel (Scomberomorini)
- 갈치 galchi cutlassfish, belt fish

- 꽁치 kongchi saldine
- 장어 jang-eo eel
- 조기, 굴비 jogi, gulbi croaker
- 대구 daegu cod
- 명태 myeongtae pollock
- 동태 dongtae frozen pollock
- 황태, 북어 hwangtae, bug-eo dried pollock
- 멸치 myeolchi anchovy
- 아귀(아구) agwi angler

Other seafood

- 해산물 haesanmul seafood

- 새우 saewoo shirimp / prawn
- 낙지, 문어 nagji, mun-eo octopus
- 오징어 ojing-eo squid / calamari
- 조개 jogae clam
- 관자 gwanja scallop

You would rarely see the word '물고기' on food menu. '물고기' is general word for fish, but as living creature most likely. When you say '생선', it includes meaning as food ingredient.
In terms of fish dishes, the food title tends to appear specific name of fish species. You could check several name of Korean fish names quick, yet using translator app could be a more convenient option! Don't make your travel too hard ;)

 

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Lexical resources 

Here are some more lexical resources which might help vegetarians and vegans travelers.

 

- 채식주의자 chaesigjuuija vegan/vegetarian

- 채소 chaeso vegetables
- 야채 yachae vegetables
- 육수 yugsu stock

- 버섯 beoseot mushroom

- 오리 o-ri duck

- 양 yang lamb

- 곱창, 막창, 대창 gobchang, magchang, daechang intestin

- 선지 seonji blood sausage

 

Expressions

 

- 이거 고기 들어 있어요?
igeo gogi deul-eo iss-eoyo?
Does this contain meat?

- 고기 안 먹어요
gogi an meog-eoyo
I don't eat meats

- 해산물 안 먹어요
haesanmul an meog-eoyo
I don't eat seafood

- 채소만 먹어요

chaesoman meog-eoyo

I eat only vegetables