Sharing the details on my Korean head spa experience and why it’s worth booking a trip to Korea just for this (but also stay for the amazing culture, food, and people!).
Hi friends! How are ya? I hope you’re having a lovely morning so far. We’re officially back in the swing of life over here. I subbed a barre class yesterday, and we have a mold remediation appointment today. Now that we’re back in town, it’s time to tackle that beast.
But for now, let’s talk about relaxation and spa-y things… like my amazing Korean head spa experience.
Here are all of my Korea and Japan posts in one spot – I’ll be adding links as they go live!
Seoul recap, what we did and what we ate
Tokyo and Kyoto itinerary and tips for travel
What we ate in Japan
My Korean Head Spa experience (this post)
When we decided we’d be visiting Korea, I knew I wanted to take advantage of some skin or beauty treatments. While it would’ve been easy to go WILD, I didn’t want to miss out on adventures with the fam. I figured a head spa appointment would be perfect because it would only take an hour or so, there were tons of locations close to our hotel, and they all had amazing reviews.
I booked a last-minute appointment at Hair the Beau and had no clue what to expect.
When I walked in, the main stylist, Raon, introduced herself and helped me get set up with a locker. Then I was led to a sitting area to have my scalp scanned.
I won’t post the before picture here, but let’s just say my scalp was kind of horrendous. Leading up to this appointment, I would only wash my hair once a week. My hair can get really dry, and I felt like washing it less helped prevent dryness. My hair didn’t get greasy, and it can hold a curl or style for a long time, so I didn’t really see a need to wash it more often. I thought it was better for me?
Turns out, the base of my hair follicles had tons of buildup from grime and dead skin. I literally felt ILL when she scanned my scalp and the image was projected onto a tiny screen in real time.
She recommended the full treatment for me and said it would take about two hours. I told her I only had an hour or so, and she said they could finish everything in an hour and 15 minutes, which worked for me. (The Pilot and the kiddos were off to a petting zoo, so I figured they’d be entertained for a bit.)
She also explained that my hair would cost extra because it was so long. I had no clue what I was getting myself into, but I decided to trust the process and the amazing reviews I’d read online.
My Korean Head Spa experience
Hair the Beau Hongdae
The full treatment:
She sat me down and another stylist came over, and they started brushing my hair. After it was fully brushed, they added an elixir to my entire scalp, scrubbed it in, and put a bubbler machine over my head for five minutes. I’m not exactly sure what the bubbler machine did, but I can assure you that Korea is living in the future.
After that, it was time to head to a separate room, which is where the majority of the treatment took place. The shampoo bowl had a chair that was also a full-body massager, and it felt heavenly.
She started working on my hair and honestly, I pretty much transcended during this portion of the experience. She washed my hair maybe six times, added a mask, more elixirs, a peptide treatment, a cool waterfall rinse situation, and then massaged my head and shoulders for what felt like 20 minutes. It was pure bliss. The scalp massage is usually my favorite part of a massage anyway, so this was next-level.
After the treatment, they led me to a styling chair and rescanned my scalp. I couldn’t believe the difference. It looked so clean and healthy.
Then they did a tandem blow dry and straighten on my hair,
and my hair felt the best it’s ever felt in my entire life.
This is a screenshot from IG with a filter but you can see how sleek and shiny it was!
She also shared the products she recommended for maintaining my results at home, and I ended up buying the shampoo, mask, hair milk, and elixir.
Here were the recommended at-home steps:
I also linked everything I could find online in this collection!
The grand total was about $375 for the treatment and products. In the States, the treatment alone probably would’ve been closer to $500. If you find yourself in Seoul, I highly, highly recommend seeking out a head spa treatment. I’ve also heard amazing things about skincare, lasers, body adjustments, and traditional medicine treatments in Seoul.
Have you ever done anything like this before? If you’ve done it in the States, how much did it cost??
A friend recommended a scalp facialist here in Tucson, so if I end up doing it again locally, it’ll be interesting to compare.
Have a lovely day, and I’ll see ya tomorrow with a giveaway!
xo
Gina
Success! Check your email for a free 30-day meal and fitness cheat sheet
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
This Giant Chicken Milanese is a crispy baked ground chicken cutlet topped with a fresh lemony arugula salad.
Viral Ground Chicken Cutlet
Chicken Milanese is one of my favorite dishes to order when I go out for Italian, so I knew I had to try the viral giant chicken cutlet from Skyler Bouchard. Instead of the traditional pounding and deep-frying, we press seasoned ground chicken into a single large cutlet, coat it with panko, and bake it on a sheet pan until golden and crispy, ready to slice and share. I topped mine with lots of baby arugula, shaved parm and fresh lemon juice, my favorite way to enjoy it! More lighter versions of Chicken Milanese using chicken breast in the air fryer, try my Air Fryer Chicken Milanese with Baby Arugula and my Chicken Milanese with Mediterranean Salad, both delicious!
Why This Ground Chicken Cutlet Recipe Works
This Chicken Milanese, made with ground chicken is such a fun spin on the classic, I even ate the leftovers cold out of the fridge the next day. Here’s why it works:
Simple: No need for cutting, pounding, or deep-frying chicken breasts.
High protein: This meal packs 31 grams of protein.
Meal Prep: Make the chicken ahead to use in salads, bowls, sandwiches, etc for the week.
Company worthy: This giant cutlet looks impressive. Plus, you can do all the prep before your guests arrive.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s everything you need to make this easy ground chicken Milanese. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
Ground Chicken: Classic Milanese uses chicken breasts, but for this sheet pan cutlet, we’re using 93% lean ground chicken.
Seasoning: Garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt
Parmesan: Grated Parm for the meat mixture and shaved for the arugula salad
All-purpose flour prevents the chicken from sticking to the parchment paper.
Eggs help the panko stick to the chicken.
Seasoned Panko: We’re using panko to coat the chicken, which will give it a crispy crust.
Olive oil spray helps the panko get crispy in the oven.
Arugula has a peppery flavor.
Vegetables: For a summer twist, add cherry tomatoes and corn to the salad.
Olive oil and lemon juice create a simple vinaigrette.
How to Make Ground Chicken Cutlet
If you don’t want to flip the sheet pan chicken cutlet, you can skip breading the other side, which is also great if you want to reduce carbs and calories. See the recipe card at the bottom for printable directions.
Season the ground chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and grated Parmesan.
Make the giant cutlet: Sprinkle a parchment-lined sheet pan with flour, then press the chicken into a disc shape. Sprinkle the top with the remaining flour and cover with parchment. Flatten the chicken with a rolling pin until it’s a quarter-inch thick.
Add the panko: Brush the chicken with the whisked eggs and sprinkle with panko. Press to ensure they stick.
Flip the cutlet: Spray another baking sheet with olive oil, then flip the cutlet onto it. Coat with the remaining egg and panko, then spray with olive oil. The more you spray, the crispier it’ll get.
Bake the chicken cutlet at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes. Then, increase the heat to 425°F and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
Top with arugula: Baby arugula, shaved Parmesan and fresh lemon juice is perfect here!
Customize It
Ground Chicken: Substitute ground turkey.
Make it gluten-free: Use GF flour and panko.
No seasoned panko? You can use plain panko or add dried herbs like parsley or oregano to the mix.
Dairy-free: Skip the Parmesan.
Salad options: Swap arugula with baby spinach or mixed greens.
Serving Suggestions
I love this giant ground chicken cutlet topped with arugula salad, but you can also en with another side dish.
1
25mins
5
30mins
3
15mins
5
15mins
Storage
Refrigerate the chicken for 4 days. The salad with dressing won’t hold, so it’s best to make only what you plan to eat that day.
Freeze for up to 3 months.
Reheat: Microwaving the breaded cutlet will make it soggy, so it’s better to reheat it in the air fryer, oven, or skillet. Air fry or bake the chicken at 350°F for 5 to 10 minutes, or warm it up on the stove over medium heat.
More Ground Chicken Recipes You’ll Love
For more dinner inspiration, check out these five healthy ground chicken recipes!
Prep: 10 minutesmins
Cook: 30 minutesmins
Total: 40 minutesmins
Yield: 4servings
Serving Size: 1/4 of the cutlet and salad
Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a medium bowl combine ground chicken, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and ¼ cup of grated parmesan. Reserve.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of flour; place chicken in the center and slightly press into a disc shape (I did this on the counter). Sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour and cover with an additional piece of parchment paper.
Use a rolling pin to roll the chicken into a giant cutlet, about ¼” thick.
Gently remove the top layer of parchment (if any chicken sticks to the parchment, take it off and press it back on to the top of the cutlet).
Brush the top of the cutlet with ½ of the whisked egg (1 egg per side). Sprinkle the cutlet with ¾ cup of panko breadcrumb and press the crumbs in well so they don’t move out of place.
Prepare an additional baking sheet with olive oil spray* and flip the cutlet, breaded side down, onto the sheet.
Repeat the egg and panko step with the top of the cutlet and then spray with more cooking spray. Bake, 25-30 minutes until you can pick the bottom of the cutlet up and see it becoming a golden brown. Raise the oven to 425°F and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
While the cutlet is cooking, prepare the salad: In a medium bowl, combine arugula and remaining 2 tablespoons shaved parmesan with 1 tablespoon olive oil and lemon juice. Reserve.
Serve giant chicken cutlet with arugula and shaved parm on top and lots of lemon juice
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.
*The more olive oil spray on the pan the more even of a crisp the cutlet will get. If you have a hard time flipping, you can bread one side and leave the other side on the parchment and bake with half the crumbs.
Serving: 1/4 of the cutlet and salad, Calories: 317.5kcal, Carbohydrates: 21g, Protein: 31g, Fat: 12.5g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 185.5mg, Sodium: 820.5mg, Fiber: 1.5g, Sugar: 1g
How can we avoid the breakdown products of pesticides that may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease as much as if you carried APOE e4, the so-called Alzheimer’s gene?
Although there is a growing list of Alzheimer’s disease susceptibility genes, those genes account for less than half of all Alzheimer’s cases. Here is the “single most compelling” piece of data on the potential control we have over the disease: When it comes to identical twins with the exact same genes, if one gets Alzheimer’s, the other usually does not. So, we have to think about all the other contributing factors beyond just genetics.
There’s a list of chlorinated pesticides, including DDE (a metabolite of DDT), that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified as probable human carcinogens. But in a study—which I’ve mentioned in a video on pesticides and cancer—blood levels of DDE and other pesticides were associated not with increased cancer mortality, but increased risk of other-cause mortality. This led researchers to speculate that this may be due to an associated increased risk of diabetes or dementia. I’ve talked previously about the diabetes link. What about dementia?
A research team at Rutgers found significantly higher blood levels of DDE in Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to controls, as you can see below and at 1:22 in my video Pesticides (DDT) and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Autopsy studies show blood levels are a good proxy for brain levels. Those patients with the highest levels were at about four times the odds of having dementia from Alzheimer’s. And in a petri dish, DDE increases amyloid precursor protein levels in human brain cells, providing a potential mechanism. Below and at 1:48 in my video, you can see the levels of the sticky protein implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease before and after DDE is added at the levels one finds circulating in highly exposed individuals among the general population.
Put all these studies together, and there does indeed seem to be a link, consistent with data showing about a doubling of risk for developing dementia among those acutely pesticide-poisoned, as you can see below and at 2:01 in my video.
Among U.S. elders, DDT and its breakdown product DDE are also associated with increased risk of cognitive decline in general, which is shown below and at 2:08 in my video.
DDT was used extensively in the United States from the 1940s through the early 1970s. At its peak, we were churning out about 180 million pounds a year. And it is still in our bodies to this day, contaminating the bloodstreams of more than 90% of Americans, with DDE—the pesticide linked to quadrupling the odds of Alzheimer’s—found at the highest levels of all.
It’s still in our bodies because it’s still in the food supply. In a previous video on the topic, I noted that the levels of DDT, DDE, and other banned pesticides and pollutants were much lower in the breast milk from a vegetarian mother compared to breast milk of her non-vegetarian sister. The largest difference was noted for DDE, which was four times lower in the vegetarian sister. This is what you see across the board for these kinds of pollutants. Below and at 3:20 in my video, you can see the levels of dioxins and PCBs found in beef, chicken, pork, processed meat, eggs, fish, dairy products, and all plant foods put together when food samples were collected from supermarkets across the United States.
These toxins build up in the food chain, so it makes sense that the most contaminated foods are meat, fish, and dairy products. The toxin levels were found to be 5 to 10 times higher in meat, eggs, fish, and dairy compared to plant foods. Unfortunately, cooking doesn’t destroy pollutants like DDE—in fact, it may make them even more concentrated. And this is for a pesticide that may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease as much as if you carried the so-called Alzheimer’s gene APOE e4.
Doctor’s Note
The video I mentioned is Pesticides and Cancer Risk.
For more videos on Alzheimer’s disease, check out the Alzheimer’s topic page.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
This Vegan Quinoa Bowl is made with roasted vegetables, protein-rich edamame, and lemony quinoa for an easy plant-based meal that’s perfect for lunch, dinner, or meal prep.
Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Bowl
I love a big bowl of vegetables as a main dish, but I’m always thinking about protein and fiber to make it more satisfying. This Vegan Quinoa Bowl uses quinoa and edamame as the base, which adds plant-based protein and fiber, while the sheet pan roasted vegetables make it hearty, cozy, and filling. Nutritional yeast gives everything a savory, almost cheesy flavor, and the mix of warm roasted vegetables with fresh arugula makes every bite so delicious. My photographer loved it so much, she told me she wasn’t expecting it to be this good!
Why This Vegan Quinoa Bowl Works
It can be challenging to get enough protein and fiber in your diet, especially if you’re vegan. By focusing on vegetables and whole grains, it’s easy to reach your fiber goals. For protein, you have to get creative by adding it where you can. That’s where nutritional yeast, quinoa, and edamame come in.
Nutritional powerhouse: With a whopping 7 different vegetables and all clean, whole ingredients, this healthy vegan quinoa bowl is packed with vitamins and minerals. Plus, it’s gluten-free and dairy-free.
High in protein, even though they don’t contain meat
Customizable: There are so many ways to switch things up to suit your tastes. I give over a dozen options below!
Colorful: Eating the rainbow is an excellent way to ensure you’re getting a variety of nutrients.
Ingredients You’ll Need
This simple vegan quinoa bowl recipe includes 7 vegetables! See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
Nutritional yeast is a common vegan alternative to Parmesan cheese because it has a similar nutty flavor.
Seasoning: Garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, kosher salt
Quinoa: Check out my quinoa cooking instructions to make sure it’s fluffy and not soggy. The secret is to use less water than most packages instruct.
Quinoa bowl dressing: Lemon juice and zest, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil
How to Make Vegan Quinoa Bowls
Line your sheet pan with parchment paper to make cleanup easier. If you’re doubling the recipe, put the vegetables on two sheet pans to ensure they have enough space to roast. See the recipe card at the bottom for printable directions.
Roast the vegetables: Spray the tomatoes, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and sliced shallots with olive oil and season with all the spices. Roast at 400°F for 25 minutes until they’re tender.
Prepare the quinoa salad: Mix the quinoa, chopped shallots, lemon juice and zest, vinegar, edamame, and remaining salt in a large bowl.
How to assemble: Divide the arugula between two shallow bowls. Top with half the quinoa and roasted veggies.
Meal Prep Tips
This roasted vegetable quinoa bowl recipe serves two people, but it’s easy to double for leftovers. You can also do most of the prep ahead of time if that’s more convenient. Here’s everything you can prep the day before:
Cook the quinoa either on the stove or in the Instant Pot.
Combine the spices in an airtight container.
Clean and cut mushrooms, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and shallots.
Thaw the edamame.
Prepare the vinaigrette (chopped shallots, vinegar, lemon, and oil) in a jar.
Before dinner the next day, while the vegetables roast, mix the quinoa and edamame with the dressing.
Customize Your Bowl
Not vegan? Feel free to swap nutritional yeast for grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano.
Mushrooms: If you can’t find shiitakes, any mushroom, like baby bella, white button, or oyster, will work.
Sweet Potatoes: Try it with butternut or acorn squash.
Broccoli: Replace it with cauliflower.
Shallots: Replace them with red onions.
Arugula: Use spinach or watercress
Other veggie options: If you don’t like mushrooms or don’t have a certain vegetable, you can add almost any other type here. Try it with bell peppers, asparagus, carrots, or Brussels sprouts.
Don’t like quinoa? Swap it for brown rice, farro, or couscous.
Vinegar: Substitute red wine vinegar with white wine or apple cider vinegar.
Ways to Add More Protein
Below are vegan and non-vegan ways to increase the protein in these quinoa veggie bowls.
Cooking liquid: Boil your quinoa in bone broth to boost its protein content.
Meat: Add chicken, shrimp, or meatballs.
Vegetarian protein: Use tofu or plant-based sausage.
Dressing: Whisk some tahini into the lemon vinaigrette.
Nuts and seeds: Garnish with pistachios, pecans, hemp hearts, or sunflower seeds.
What to Serve with Vegan Quinoa Bowls
This bowl is a meal in one and doesn’t need a side, but if you want to make this a multi-course meal, here’s some ideas:
Storage Tips
How to store: Keeping the quinoa, vegetables, and arugula in separate containers will keep everything fresher for longer. However, if you’re taking them with you on the go, it’s fine to refrigerate the veggies and quinoa in one container, and the arugula in another.
Refrigerator: The quinoa and roasted vegetables will last 4 days in the fridge.
Reheat in the microwave until it’s warm. Then, stir in the arugula. It’s also fine if you’d rather eat the leftovers cold or at room temperature.
More Vegan Bowl Recipes You’ll Love
Prep: 20 minutesmins
Cook: 25 minutesmins
Total: 45 minutesmins
Yield: 2servings
Serving Size: 1cup quinoa, 1 cup arugula and about 2 ½ cups veggies + 2 TB vinaigrette
Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a small bowl combine nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika and 1 ¼ teaspoons salt.
Place the veggies and sliced shallots, except for the chopped shallots and edamame, on a large sheet pan and spray generously with olive oil, add the spice mixture and toss well, spraying with more oil as needed. Roasting for 25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and cooked through.
While the veggies roast, prepare the quinoa: In a large bowl combine quinoa, chopped shallots, with the juice of 2 lemons, zest from 1 lemon, red wine vinegar, edamame and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt and toss well.
Add 1 cup arugula to two large shallow bowls and separate the quinoa evenly over the top.
Separate the roasted veggies evenly over each bowl.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.
If you’re someone who worries about carbs, remember that not all carbs are created equal. This bowl gets its carbohydrates from wholesome ingredients like quinoa, sweet potatoes, edamame, and vegetables, which also provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, and plant-based protein. With 19 grams of fiber per serving, it’s the kind of meal that will keep you full and satisfied. Double the recipe for meal prep.
Serving: 1cup quinoa, 1 cup arugula and about 2 ½ cups veggies + 2 TB vinaigrette, Calories: 552kcal, Carbohydrates: 87.5g, Protein: 25g, Fat: 14.5g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 1262.5mg, Fiber: 19.5g, Sugar: 17g
Sharing a recap of what we did in Seoul, where we stayed, and my thoughts on the whole experience. The nutshell version: I CAN’T WAIT to go back.
Hi friends! How are you? I hope you had an amazing weekend! We just caught up with house stuff here, finally recovered from jet lag (I was barely jet lagged when we got there, but ended up riding the struggle bus when we came home), and met up with some friends.
I’m so excited to share some recap posts on our trips with you!
Here’s a list of what I have planned so that when they go live, I can add the links to this post.
Seoul recap, what we did and what we ate (this post)
Tokyo and Kyoto itinerary and tips for travel
What we ate in Japan
My Korean Head Spa experience
Seoul recap, what we did, and what we ate
Before I get started, I wanted to begin with an apology.
To my friends in South Korea and Japan, I was ignorant, and now I know. I had NO CLUE how much I’d been missing out. The girls picked the locations for this trip, and I figured it would be something that I enjoyed, but it wasn’t my first choice for a vacation. (I’d be happy repeating least year’s 5+ weeks in Spain adventure.) I didn’t expect to fall in love with these places, but I absolutely did. This trip absolutely changed my life. I’ll share more in my Japan post, but these places didn’t feel like different countries… they felt like different worlds.
The people in Seoul were SO kind and lovely. The food was incredible. It felt so very safe, and there was so much to do. We could have doubled our time there and been happy. The funny thing is that we had the opportunity to be stationed in Korea multiple times during Tom’s military career. All of our friends who lived there loved it, and now I understand why.
We flew from Phoenix to San Francisco, and then direct from SFO to Seoul. The flight was long – about 12 1/2 hours – but I managed to nap on and off (the girls stayed wide awake the whole time) and we landed at about 3pm. I think this is the perfect time to land in a new country because your hotel room is ready, so if you’re totally wrecked and need a nap, you can. You don’t have to wander around and wait until your room is ready.
We knew that it would be a low-key day, so we checked into the hotel and set out to explore. We stayed at the RYSE Autograph Collection hotel and I would 100% recommend it for the excellent location, amenities, and dining options. (I booked everything using our Amex platinum. My referral link is here!)
It was surrounded by great restaurants and shops, and easy to get around.
I didn’t take a pic but the bathroom had an enormous waterfall shower with great water pressure.
We were shocked to see entire streets filled with little kiosks and cute shops just a block away from the hotel.
We explored and met our new skincare bestie at TONYMOLY and P was exhausted, to we went back to the hotel while Tom and Liv grabbed dinner. We all slept through the night and were fully set the next day!
We did a lot while we were in Seoul, but here are some of the highlights.
Lotte World
Lotte World is an enormous indoor and outdoor theme park. Liv suggested this one – she added her ideas to our trip planning spreadsheet – and we had a blast. We joked that it was like a speakeasy. It’s many levels and quite a few attractions seem to be hidden, but there was so much to do. It also blew my mind that got four tickets with 3 skip the line passes for each of us and the total was $200. (I used Trip.com to book.)
I didn’t take a pic of the outside but picture a castle, various roller coasters, a drop ride, and lots of shops and food stands.
We did all of the best rides – they have a mix of rides for younger kiddos and more thrilling rides and coasters for older kids and adults – and spent the entire day there. Journey to Atlantis was AMAZING; definitely one of my top theme park rides.
Baseball game and Korean BBQ
We spent an entire day shopping and exploring, and that evening, we went on a tour with an English speaking guide to Korean BBQ
and a Dusan Bears baseball game.
Baseball is HUGE in Seoul and a true cultural experience. Each hitter has their own chant and cheer, and the entire arena is dancing and cheering. The baseball food is next level, too. They sold beers with an upside down baseball cap that was filled with shrimp – it looked SO good- in addition to tteokbokki, cheese and meat skewers, tons of real food options. You can also bring in your own food and drinks; so different from the States where they force to you go inside to buy $8 bottles of water.
Head spa and petting zoo
The head spa will be receiving its own post, but it was a highlight of the trip! While I was having one of the best spa experiences of my life, the Pilot and the kiddos went to a petting zoo where they were able to hold raccoons and pet meerkats.
Living the dream:
Shopping at Olive Young
If you go to Seoul, shopping at Olive Young is a must. You can stock up on all of the best K beauty products at amazing prices. It’s like an enormous Sephora with rows of skincare and cosmetics… all the best stuff. I was worried we wouldn’t find an Olive Young or it would be hard to get to, but they’re everywhere. We had three locations right by our hotel.
Gluten-free dining in Seoul
On this trip, I tried my best to eat gluten-free as closely as possible, but understood that it can be very difficult – not everything is labeled – and accepted that there would be some wheat in sauces and condiments. Also because I don’t speak the language, I didn’t want to be difficult to try to modify the meals.
I’ve been strict gluten-free for 3 years for the autoimmune stuff and it’s made a tremendous difference for me, and P has been gluten-free for the past year. (She was red on her IgG test and she used to have bad stomach pain and joint pain, which has resolved since we cut it out.) I told her we’d just do our best because thankfully we’re not allergic to gluten, but we’d probably have some in sauces, etc.
We were able to eat at two 100% gluten-free restaurants in Seoul: Sunnyhouse and Monli2. Both were A+ experiences.. better than any of the gluten-free options I’ve had in Tucson.
Sunnyhouse gluten-free restaurant in Seoul, Korea
Sunnyhouse has breakfast all day, sandwiches, platters and desserts. It’s kind of a hidden location but is extremely cute inside.
P had a fluffy nutella waffle, a grilled cheese,
and I had the Mediterranean plate. I could eat this every day. The bread was SO soft and fluffy. Why do US restaurants have such a hard time making good gluten-free bread???
Monli2 gluten-free restaurant in Seoul, Korea
Monli2 has CHURROS, pizza, sandwiches, and baked goodies. I ordered a pesto pizza and it seriously one of the best gf pizzas I’ve had in my life (#1 is Italy, #2 is this one, and #3 is NYC).
I knew that I would eat different foods while we were in Korea and Japan and the entire time we were gone, I felt amazing. My energy was great, I didn’t get a stomach ache from anything, and the foods were all so incredibly fresh and delicious.
Our hotel had a huge breakfast buffet each day and you could get American breakfast staples (like fruits, pastries, eggs, potatoes, bacon and juice) as well as tradition Korean items, like kimchi, beef bulgogi, fried rice, pickled veggies, etc.
Tips for visiting and things we noticed:
– Definitely learn a handful of phrases but Google translate can be a great tool. I was surprised to find that quite a few people spoke English, and when ordering at kiosks, it’s easy to switch the language to English. The girls know so many Korean phrases so they were able to help us out.
– The bus and subways are very clean and efficient, but we ended up using Uber to get around. It was far less expensive to get around than it is in the states. We liked Uber instead of traditional taxis because you can input the location – no language barriers this way – and you can see the exact fare.
You can also get a Climate Card or T Money card for unlimited passes for transportation if you decide to use public transport.
– Carry a little trash bag with you. Public trash cans are not everywhere, so you may have to carry trash with you until you can find a trash can. Don’t assume that all trash cans are public; it may be owned by a store.
– Don’t walk and eat. It’s bad manners, so if you get a meal or snack, just stop and enjoy it before continuing on. I fee like this is a better way to eat anyway! If your nervous system is calm, you’ll have a better time digesting your food.
– Google maps doesn’t work. We used Naver instead to get around. Google transit issues before using Naver for public transportation. You should get these on public alerts while you’re there, but it’s good to verify before hopping on public transit.
– Tipping is not a thing in Seoul, but you can add compliments in Uber.
– Call your phone provider before leaving to set up an international plan. We usually do this before we travel so that we can have voice and data. We use AT&T and it automatically activates once it detects that we’re in a different country and they offer deals; Liv’s phone was half off while we were there.
– Korean Air! This is what we used to get to Tokyo, and it was an elite experience. Ticket prices were very reasonable,
– Take your shoes off in your hotel room. Usually they’ll have little slides by the door that you can wear.
– Leave your shampoo and conditioner at home. Pack LIGHTLY on the toiletries because you will find better stuff there and the shampoo and conditioner in the hotel will be amazing quality.
– Korea uses European outlets. I’ve had these converters for years and brought them on this trip. They work for laptops and phones but do not plug your hair dryer or styling tool into these! The best bet is to buy a hair tool there, go to head spa or get a blow out somewhere (!), or let it air dry and do some sock curls.
– You can’t bring CBD to Korea. I’m glad I researched this beforehand and left my beloved gummies at home. I brought melatonin but didn’t end up needing it. There are also some medications that are prescribed here that are not allowed in Korea, so check the regulations before you go.
If you’re headed to Seoul anytime soon, you’re in for a treat 🙂 I’m here if I can help with any questions and I’ll be back with my head spa recap tomorrow! xo
Gina
Success! Check your email for a free 30-day meal and fitness cheat sheet
