Halal food is easy in Itaewon and hard in rural Gangwon. How to eat on a Nami Island and Vivaldi Park day: what Nami Island offers, seafood choices near the resort, and what to pack from Seoul.
You're spending a day at Vivaldi Park or Nami Island and you're excited about the snow. Then lunchtime arrives. In Seoul, especially around Itaewon, halal food is easy to find. In rural Gangwon and Gapyeong it is much harder. Most restaurants serve pork, and even a vegetable soup may be made with beef stock. With a little planning you can still eat well.
Nami Island receives many visitors from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Middle East and has made a real effort to welcome Muslim travellers. It has a prayer room, and it has offered halal-certified dishes at its restaurants, including the Asian restaurant Dongmoon, which has been listed in past guides as serving dishes certified by the Korea Muslim Federation. Menus and certification can change from year to year, so ask at the information center when you arrive which restaurants currently serve certified halal food, and look for the certificate displayed at the counter.
If your day includes both places, Nami Island is the best spot to eat a proper lunch before you head to the ski resort.
The Chuncheon and Hongcheon area is famous for dakgalbi, spicy stir-fried chicken. It is delicious, but the chicken is usually not halal and the sauce may contain cooking wine. Seafood is the simpler choice. Look for restaurants serving grilled mackerel (godeungeo-gui), which is just salted fish, or spicy fish stew (maeuntang). Ask whether the broth contains meat: gogi yuksu deureo isseoyo? Some dakgalbi restaurants also offer seafood versions. Keep in mind that a seafood dish in a non-halal kitchen shares utensils and grills with meat, so decide in advance what level of caution suits your family.
Resort food courts and fast-food outlets usually have at least one seafood option, such as a shrimp or fish burger, and pizza shops can leave off ham or bacon if you ask (haem ppaego juseyo). These items are cooked in the same kitchens as pork, so treat them as pork-free choices, not halal ones. The resort's convenience stores and supermarket are handy for snacks: banana milk, seasoned boiled eggs, fruit and bread. Read labels for pork (돼지고기) and lard; our convenience store label guide shows what to look for.
Before you leave Seoul, stop at one of the halal grocery shops around the Seoul Central Mosque in Itaewon. Nongshim produces a halal-certified version of Shin Ramyun, and halal instant noodles, snacks and ready meals are easy to carry. If you book a condo with a kitchen, you can also cook your own meals.
Eat lunch on Nami Island after checking which restaurants are currently certified, have a seafood dinner near Vivaldi Park, and keep instant noodles and bread in your bag for emergencies. For the bigger picture, see our Muslim-friendly 5-day itinerary and the guide to prayer space at Korean ski resorts.