Happy (belated) World Vegan day! T'was a very good day indeed. In the afternoon, I headed over to City Hall area to show my support for the Seoul Vegan Day event. It wasn't the grand festival that one might expect, but at least the Korean vegans were doing their thing to make their presence known and bring awareness to the issue of animal rights and compassionate living. When I got there, I had just missed the vegan march, that had departed on their walk around city hall and towards the Insadong area. After a while, they returned though, and I got to see the group with their posters and vegetable headpieces.
There was also a table set up with ajumas handing out free samplings of vegan food! I got a sandwich, and two different types of soy/wheat meats on sticks.
They were also giving free vegan ramen! I noticed that these ramens are produced by 'Nongshim,' which is a big packaged food company in Korea, so I asked the woman where we could buy these ramens, and she said that are/will be sold at E-Mart! Woot!
In addition to the free food, there was a stall that was protesting vivisection, particularly the testing done on beagles. I didn't fully understand the details, but the general idea I got after asking around, was that a good deal of animal testing is being outsourced to Korea from countries where it is either illegal or 'frowned upon.' And they are mainly breeding beagles for this purpose since these dogs have traits that make them more 'exploitable', such as their medium size, and their happy-go-lucky, sweet nature. Breaks my heart. So the protesters there were getting people to sign petitions to ban vivisection in Korea. A lot of people brought their own beagles to support the cause, and they were adorable, and indeed, very friendly.
Cute vegan kiddo protesting vivisection on beagles
I got really happy seeing so many vegan Korean children running around. One lady I was talking to went ahead and starting point to all the children she knew were vegan.
Neo says "Go Veg!"
So anyway, after a while of hanging out at the vegan event, my friend and I decided to walk along the Cheonggyecheon stream. On the way back, we found a cultural festival going on alongside the stream, with lots of food booths, and also live traditional drum/dance performances.
Sooooo soft and yummy!!!
We decided to try out some of the food, so we got some ddeok (Korean rice cakes), and then a massive beansprout pancake (빈대떡) cut in quarters. This was good, but also super oily, so we couldn't finish it. I do love beansprout pancakes though, so I will make my own healthier version soon. :)
ajuma at work
sprout pancake (빈대떡)
So all in all, it was a fantastic day! I have to say, it was really cool to see that so many Korean-Korean vegans do exist (not just "gyopo" vegans), and to see them actively supporting the cause. Korean Vegan Pride! hehe.
Eating the sandwich I got from the vegan event, for dinner.
Oh, and VeganMoFo 2009 is over! It was a lot of fun, and I'm so happy that I got to be a part of it this year. It was great reading everyone's blogs and viewing the delicious food from around the world. See all you MoFo-ers next year!