As I was preparing to move to Korea, one of the most common questions people asked me was “Are you going to be able to find gluten free options there?” The short answer is absolutely. But there is a long answer, too.

Most traditional Korean meals are almost 100% gluten free. Which makes me extremely happy. In the U.S., almost all traditional meals had gluten in them. But even if one of the main dishes has noodles in it, they are most likely going to be glass noodles, which are made out of potato starch and water.

The trouble comes when you stray from the more traditional options. For example, I hear that Korea has really good fried chicken. Since it’s breaded, I can’t eat it. Back home, I could eat rotisserie chicken, which while it still wasn’t fried, it was still good. I haven’t seen that kind of chicken here.

Another example is the gluten free replacements that were fairly easy to find in the states. For example, I could find gluten free spaghetti or penne pasta in almost any grocery store. Here, there are naturally gluten free noodle options that are harder to find back home, but no replacements for traditional Italian pasta noodles.

While gluten free bread isn’t in major grocery stores here, there are rice bread bakeries in which they make everything with rice flour, including pastries, which I can eat. That is generally where I get my bread. Some stores have corn bread as an option, which isn’t the Jiffy corn bread, but actual loaves of bread that are made with corn, but I prefer the rice dough bakeries. I mean, who doesn’t like pastries?

I even found a pizza place that offers rice dough instead of wheat, which is awesome! It’s also really delicious. The pizza here is wild. You can order the crust stuffed with sweet potato, and that is one of the tame features of pizza. They usually have options of beef, seafood, regular potatoes, corn, and cream cheese on your pizza. I’m a fan of the pizza here.

In regards to cooking at home, I usually don’t have an issue finding things because they aren’t gluten free, but because the staples are completely different than what we have back home. Or if the grocery stores do have what I need, it’s at least double the price from what it was in the U.S.. Another mild block that I have had is what spices are available, but that means in order to buy what is affordable and available, my go-to recipes have expanded since my arrival.

Thanks for reading! 읽어줘서 고마워요! Stay safe and stay happy. 행복해요!