Long before plant based eating had a name, Korea had a complete vegan cuisine, kept in mountain temples and cooked for monks who sit still for hours. It is heritage food in its purest form, built on seasonal vegetables and on fermentation aged in courtyard jars, and it has long been held as the country's food for a long and steady life.
This is a journey into that kitchen, to learn how it is made and to taste it where it is made. The food is extraordinary long before anyone explains why.
For vegetarian and vegan travelers, it is also one of the best ways to eat in Korea, where so much of the everyday table is built on meat, fish sauce and anchovy broth.
Sachal eumsik is the food cooked in Korean Buddhist monasteries, and it has been cooked more or less this way for over a thousand years. It is entirely plant based, vegan in today's terms, but it was never a diet. It was built to keep the mind clear enough to sit still for a very long time.
There is no meat and no fish. There is also no garlic, no onion, no spring onion and no chive, the five pungent vegetables held to stir appetite and agitation. Take all of that away and what remains has to carry the meal alone: mountain vegetables picked that week, and soy sauce, doenjang and gochujang fermented in earthenware jars in the temple courtyard, some of them older than the cook.
A spoonful of a twenty year old soy sauce carries more depth than a modern kitchen can build in a day. Most people find they eat less than usual and feel better for longer.
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