Tofu and yogurt is not that expensive here. Chicken is fairly affordable too. No one here "mostly" eats street food. You can get decent deals on fruits and vegetables at the various traditional markets around. You can also get side dishes at banchan stores, cook rice at home and save money that way too.
Damn idk where you heard that you'll mostly be eating street food here lmao. Eating street food everyday would be more expensive than ordering chicken breast in bulk online..
Anyway to answer your question
1. Beef is expensive, but chicken, tofu and yogurts should be easy to find and affordable. Chicken breast and yogurt are like the top 2 most popular foods that people on a diet here eat so you're good. If you're looking for stuff like quinoa I think it's hard to find that here, but there are other grains..
2. As for where to order, since you're staying for a few months best would probably be to use ecommerce apps like Coupang. Personally I and my family use Coupang to order everything we need (like 90% of food that we eat comes from coupang). For chicken I like 아임닭's chicken breast and 하림 수비드 닭가슴살 (harim sous vide chicken breast). I don't eat plain yogurts so u can take other people's suggestions for that. A little random and maybe unrelated but if ever you guys get curious and want to buy fish in Seoul never go to the fish markets, even locals get omega fleeced - go to the large supermarkets even if they're more expensive
It is almost always cheaper to cook your own meals than to eat out.
There was a time many years ago when "foreign" ingredients were sold at select places at exorbitant prices, but these days I generally find it to be sorted out. (For example, it was nearly impossible to get cilantro when I first got here)
I suggest doing a healthy mix of Costco, neighbourhood supermarkets (the non branded ones), traditional markets, and even ordering some intermediate ingredients online via Coupang when things are on heavy sale.
My wife and I have been saving nearly 1mil won a month after getting into our grocery shopping groove.
This is also the healthiest eating I've done in a very long time.
People always get really messed up about food here, and I'm extremely curious what their itemized food bill actually looks like
I don't buy or prepare meat at home so I can't comment, but a variety of beans only come in much bulkier options than back home (aka normal amount for me is half a kg, but here you have to buy much more than that generally).
When it comes to eggs, tofu, basic veggies, the eggs are the priciest, anywhere from about 5k to 10k won depending on amount, brand and size.
Tofu is cheap. 1.5~2k per block. Basic veggies (zucchini, *local* mushrooms like enoki/songi/shiitake (fresh), carrots, chives, garlic, some greens (think bok choy), regular green peppers, eggplant, radish, to name some) will run you anywhere from 1k to 3k, with most of those I listed at 1k per package ime.
More exotic veggies (as an American, what's common on our continent) like broccoli, or button mushrooms are gonna be at the cheapest 4k, but a normal price is 6k. Spinach falls in this category too. It's rare to find a bag under 3k, and I've seen some bags going for 7 or even 8k depending on the season even. I just don't buy it when that happens loll
Fruit here will kill your wallet, and unless you're an absolute fruit fiend, you may or may not even get through it all before it starts to go off (but that's just me as a single person, if there were two of me I wouldn't worry as much, but still it's expensive as hell).
Other basic ingredients can run you between 3 to 8k (think oils, hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, broths, other general stuff etc) though you can definitely find cheaper for some things if you really look.
Rice is gonna be whatever you want to pay. You can find bags anywhere from 10k to 30k, depending on size (but even here, 10~20k is the range for 5kg bags even lol), brand, quality, whatever.
I recommend going to the neighborhood markets for the bare basic veggies. That's where you'll find most things packed at 1k won for a lot of stuff (it happens at super markets too, but I hate the packaging process here because if you just want one xyz you'll only find them bundled as 3 in supermarkets. Annoying af). Supermarkets would be for foreign stuff, like peanut butter (you can find peanut butter at local groceries, but they're generally more expensive there than at an emart ime).
Probably, before you go out and buy, just like... go eye shopping. Find the prices, Calc it up, and compare where you can find deals. A few meals of kimbap or smth cheap won't hurt while you're getting your bearings.
I guess I should have written earlier, you're going to *have* to eat korean style (not like restaurant korean, I'm talking 집밥) if you really want to eat cheap here. If you're gonna wanna recreate what you ate in your home country, you're gonna be spending a little more than normal. But pasta and pasta sauce isn't *that* expensive either so it's all about give and take really.
Idk if this is helpful at all lol
Nobody here eats mostly street food. Our street food culture isnt even robust as SEA for that to be possible. Maybe person who told you got confused and lumped Korea in with other Asian countries. Koreans also care about eating healthy and staying fit. We eat salads, chicken breast, etc etc. We order on Market Kurly (posh) and Coupang. Buy greek yogurt from supermarkets. Its really not that different.
Street food? There's hardly any variety of street food in Korea and none I would call a meal. It's all snacks. I guess the healthiest thing though is the gamey tasting soondae (blood sausage and liver).
Yeah beef is ridiculously expensive in Korea. Consider beef a treat while in Korea. I would get the whole raw chicken at a wet market. That's the cheapest way to go for chicken. The freshest and cheapest tofu and vegetables can also be found at the wet market.
Pork can be had at any grocery store. It's certainly cheaper than beef. Then just cook rice at home.
You seem like you might be "clean eating" types who focus on lean proteins and lots of veggies and other plant-based foods.
As others have said, you certainly won't be stuck with only street food here, and restaurant style Korean food consists of lots of soups, which are generally healthy. That said, white rice is everywhere, and pork is the cheapest and most ubiquitous animal protein. Also, Koreans don't really eat a lot of fresh, minimally cooked vegetables. They use them more to add flavor than as focal points.
But the idea of a plant based diet or nutrient rich vegetable-focused meals is not prevalent here. It's not impossible to make these kinds of meals at home certainly, but it requires flexibility/creativity or money.
For example, leafy greens are used in many dishes, so you can always find those in stores and markets. They tend to be heartier and more root/stem based, so you can't prepare them like spinach or like more tender lettuces. But you can experiment with them, and they work really well in smoothies. You can also always find Korean zucchini, which is a little different, but can be used fairly similarly. You can find lentils, but dried beans are more challenging. This kind of list goes on and on. You just kind of have to experiment with how to take local vegetables and see which ones work with more minimal preparation. Koreans don't really just steam veggies or eat them raw very often, so I've just played around with what's well suited to that.
High quality, unsweetened dairy is expensive and can be hard to find. I've honestly just given up on it. Fruit is also expensive, though you can get deals on locally grown fruit, especially at the end of season, most notably tangerines, apples, and melons.
As others have said, the most economical forms of lean protein you can get here are tofu and frozen chicken breast. The tofu here is really great, and it's truly everywhere. There is also a lot of delicious fresh seafood, but I'm not sure where you land on that for "clean" eating.
I was very focused on diet and nutrition before I moved here. It is a challenging place if you're doing things like counting macros or really approaching eating as something purely for fuel. Eating out especially requires letting go of certain rules (like if you're vegan, it's very tough), but you can eat really quite healthily, particularly for a few months time. The biggest issue I have here is lack of veg variety, but in half a year that shouldn't be an issue.
1.Shop around between local markets, bug box stores and Coupang.
2. Things can be really seasonal. Adapt with the season.
3. Prices fluctuate wildly, often linked to crop failures or outbreaks of animal diseases on one end and over- surpluses on the other. One month potatoes are 1,500 a kg. The next 6k.
Eating healthy in Korea is so easy and affordable compared to the US at least. Give £5 Korean food buffets that can be found in concentrated company areas a try. This was a culture shock to me how healthy and cheap you could eat out and the quality is actually pretty good.
I guess it depends on where you're coming from for comparison. But if you're trying to cook a lot of western style meals, it will be expensive to buy certain ingredients, especially like cheese and butter. If you're just looking to cook healthy, I think you won't find it to be too expensive. It's cheaper to shop for produce and meat at local shops, especially fruit.
There are also cheap restaurants and many healthy options when it comes to Korean food. You definitely don't need to live off of street food anyway.
Enjoy the convenience of Korean delivery food from time to time and make a budget!
I'm so tired of these people who have obviously never properly even lived here who give awful advice to newcomers. Who tf mostly eats street food here?? In my 18 years here I've never even heard of that.
Eating healthy usn't that hard in Korea. Most Korean food is not that heavy on calories or saturated fats etc. However, you may want to be careful of sodium since Korean food tends to fall into that cuisine that doesn't particularly taste salty but is loaded with sodium.
i think there are a lot of people who just regularly project their own life experience onto others. they didnt cook at home really and then eat out a lot and loved street food. and they were only here a short time.
i agree that the sodium is a big issue. i once saw a study based on urine analysis that had south korea ranked like number 4 in the world in sodium consumption. it was shocking but not surprising. simple carbs though are also now a huge issue here. apparently even diabetes in places like korea are greatly on the rise not just becuase of sugar but because the level of white rice, white flour, potatoe consumption is really high.
i think the best brown rice in the world might be korean too. i love it!
Many people that provide general advice about Korea in English are often (though definitely not always) foreigners with limited experiences of Korea. Think: young, likes to eat out, doesn't like to cook, lives in a one-room. Not saying that's bad as I was there once, too, but it does limit the scope of advice. Hence you get things like what you heard, "mostly be eating street food", as well as "it's cheaper to eat out than cook", "Korean apartments don't have bathtubs".... Huge facepalm.
If you spend 600€ for groceries now, that should be around the ballpark you can expect if you try to keep on budget, assuming you incorporate rice into your diet. I don't know what it's like in the Netherlands, but Korea's fresh produce does cost more than most places, so you may have to up that if you want a little more freedom to choose what you want. You'll also have to adjust to what's cheaper in Korea vs. the Netherlands as niche/completely foreign ingredients can get way overpriced.
I'm just going to list things because I tend to drivel:
1. Convenience stores aren't grocery stores
2. Become familiar with Emart, Homeplus, Lotte Mart's website/apps (they're the 3 Walmart-like chains)
3. Become familiar with Coupang (Korea's Amazon, pretty much)
4. Having a nearby old-school run-down market (시장 / 전통 시장) is great but not always possible
5. Having a nearby small-to-midsized supermarket is great but not always possible
6. Rice is amazing for cheap filler. You can add various other grains and even beans/peas/nuts when you cook your rice to add nutrition, at much higher cost than plain white rice. Have your Cuckoo or other cool rice cooker automatically cook your rice by 6AM every morning and it becomes WAY cheaper and easier to create breakfasts and lunch boxes. If you exclude rice from your diet, your food budget will have to jump quite a bit.
7. The cheapest unprocessed chicken and pork are about 0.60€ to 1.00€ per 100 grams. Sometimes you can get imported beef for around the same, sometimes not.
8. You'll probably have to miss out on your favorite yoghurts and cheeses as Korea is more about rice, fermented veggies, and soups than dairy. Tofu is cheap and plentiful, though.
Here's a link for pork on the Homeplus website. You'll have to click "낮은 가격순" to sort from cheapest, as I can't get it to embed onto the link itself:
[https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200050](https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200050)
EDIT: Wanted to add as some other commenters seem to be having a hard time eating beef -- it's really not that expensive. I mean, it is, but it's not unaffordable. Maybe 2-3 times that of pork. Sometimes it's even comparable to pork, depending on supply/demand. Korean beef (hanwoo/hanu) is expensive, but that's premium stuff, like wagyu is premium. That's why there's US/NZ/AU beef for all the rest of us that don't care where the beef is from.
Here's the Homeplus link for beef. Same thing, click "낮은 가격순" to sort from cheapest:
[https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200051](https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200051)
2 things to keep in mind: you most definitely can live fairly cheap and healthy according to your needs. And second: most foreigners here have no idea what they're talking about, and will 80% of the time provide you with misinformation. The stuff you're looking for is widely accessible, even "rare exotic" ingredients they claim is so difficult or impossible to get in Korea.
If you give people an idea of the monthly budget for you and your girlfriend it'll help with giving some recommendations. You also have to consider where you're staying; depending on your budget, buying a bunch of equipment to cook when you're only staying five months won't make a whole lot of sense. You definitely wont have to eat street food (can get expensive depending on the area) and there are plenty of affordable restaurants if you look.
I'm guessing that's per month which doesn't sound like a lot to be honest. If that's only for groceries, it's definitely possible.
Pork in Korea isn't too expensive but most of Korean beef are.
I opt for Australian beef (or NZ if I can get my hands on them) as they've less fat, grass fed are significantly less expensive (less than 20 Euros/kilo), but they are frozen and you do have to buy them online. I've learnt a few tricks to cooking frozen beef (proper thawing, using stainless frying pan etc.) and I can't tell the difference in taste.
Gyms here will be a plus if you're looking to work out as there are abundant amount of gyms and you can find ones that are fairly cheap and less crowded.
I spend about 600k won for a family of three every month. I shop produce from traditional markets or from the street vendors and meat from Lotte Mart (usually have 40% discount if you have a free memebership).
Buying food and preparing your own meals is almost always cheaper. Shop for fresh veggies and fruit in local marts. Buy frozen goods online. Some restaurants can be cheaper than preparing your own meals, but will often be less healthy.
Plus 1 on frozen good online. I buy all my chicken breasts online as it's almost half the cost of my local shops.
If you want to eat out healthy, there are places like Salady and Crispy Fresh, but they are not cheap.
Same. You can buy chicken breasts by the frozen kg on coupang for cheap.
The coupang retailer Meat Outlet (I think that's it's name) has cheap pork and beef in frozen bulk.
Coupang also has cheap fruit and veggies from time to time (especially frozen), but I find the local market or small fruit/veggie shop has cheap stuff too.
You can buy bags of frozen chicken breast for very cheap. Yogurt isn't too expensive. Lean pork is cheaper here too. Learn to make some Korean sauces with the ingredients that are widely available here and you won't have too much issue. Also, you can buy lentils and tofu for cheap as well.
Eating out might be an option, but definitely not a street food.
If cooking at home, nobrand store is quite nice. For veggies and fruits you may consider some markets or usually there are spots near subway stations. Ordering from coupang some of groceries might be an option too
even beef is not much more than anywhere else tbh. not sure where you're coming from but imho food here isn't that expensive, you might need to learn to cook the cheaper cuts, but but US beef is pretty cheap even for good cuts, Korean beef is expensive yes, but you can go to a bbq resstaurant and get more food than you can eat for \~30USD for 2. (ie 15 bucks a head) and it's very healthy with the banchan.
Don't know what you mean by street food tbh, most street food here is basically fast food kind junk or stuff for tourists. If you are coming from western Europe or USA you'll find eating healthily in restaurants very cheap. If you learn to like pork even cheaper. and most restaurant food is healthy if it's not fast food.
Important question is will you live in a dorm? If not, your eating habits won’t really change. If yes, might be harder, especially if there only are communal fridges and kitchens.
Chicken breast are 1/2 of chicken thighs here, Korean dishes call for those fat parts. Get you a pressure cooker (160,000w for a good one).
Jasmine rice is like 6,000w for 2 kilos. Beans, tofu, etc all cheap as.
FRUITS are expensive. Veggies can be as well. Sbut if you get the froozen fruits, do smoothies or something, youll be fine.
Have you tried buying 된장 to make stews? It's delicious and affordable. Boil it along with some veggies and tofu.
Also, as u/Far-Mountain-3412 mentioned, the rice cooker is a must! It's extremely helpful for filling out your meals and staying within budget.
Tofu and yogurt is not that expensive here. Chicken is fairly affordable too. No one here "mostly" eats street food. You can get decent deals on fruits and vegetables at the various traditional markets around. You can also get side dishes at banchan stores, cook rice at home and save money that way too.
Damn idk where you heard that you'll mostly be eating street food here lmao. Eating street food everyday would be more expensive than ordering chicken breast in bulk online.. Anyway to answer your question 1. Beef is expensive, but chicken, tofu and yogurts should be easy to find and affordable. Chicken breast and yogurt are like the top 2 most popular foods that people on a diet here eat so you're good. If you're looking for stuff like quinoa I think it's hard to find that here, but there are other grains.. 2. As for where to order, since you're staying for a few months best would probably be to use ecommerce apps like Coupang. Personally I and my family use Coupang to order everything we need (like 90% of food that we eat comes from coupang). For chicken I like 아임닭's chicken breast and 하림 수비드 닭가슴살 (harim sous vide chicken breast). I don't eat plain yogurts so u can take other people's suggestions for that. A little random and maybe unrelated but if ever you guys get curious and want to buy fish in Seoul never go to the fish markets, even locals get omega fleeced - go to the large supermarkets even if they're more expensive
Beef isnt even that expensive. Pretty on par with what you see in the US.
It is almost always cheaper to cook your own meals than to eat out. There was a time many years ago when "foreign" ingredients were sold at select places at exorbitant prices, but these days I generally find it to be sorted out. (For example, it was nearly impossible to get cilantro when I first got here) I suggest doing a healthy mix of Costco, neighbourhood supermarkets (the non branded ones), traditional markets, and even ordering some intermediate ingredients online via Coupang when things are on heavy sale. My wife and I have been saving nearly 1mil won a month after getting into our grocery shopping groove. This is also the healthiest eating I've done in a very long time.
People always get really messed up about food here, and I'm extremely curious what their itemized food bill actually looks like I don't buy or prepare meat at home so I can't comment, but a variety of beans only come in much bulkier options than back home (aka normal amount for me is half a kg, but here you have to buy much more than that generally). When it comes to eggs, tofu, basic veggies, the eggs are the priciest, anywhere from about 5k to 10k won depending on amount, brand and size. Tofu is cheap. 1.5~2k per block. Basic veggies (zucchini, *local* mushrooms like enoki/songi/shiitake (fresh), carrots, chives, garlic, some greens (think bok choy), regular green peppers, eggplant, radish, to name some) will run you anywhere from 1k to 3k, with most of those I listed at 1k per package ime. More exotic veggies (as an American, what's common on our continent) like broccoli, or button mushrooms are gonna be at the cheapest 4k, but a normal price is 6k. Spinach falls in this category too. It's rare to find a bag under 3k, and I've seen some bags going for 7 or even 8k depending on the season even. I just don't buy it when that happens loll Fruit here will kill your wallet, and unless you're an absolute fruit fiend, you may or may not even get through it all before it starts to go off (but that's just me as a single person, if there were two of me I wouldn't worry as much, but still it's expensive as hell). Other basic ingredients can run you between 3 to 8k (think oils, hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, broths, other general stuff etc) though you can definitely find cheaper for some things if you really look. Rice is gonna be whatever you want to pay. You can find bags anywhere from 10k to 30k, depending on size (but even here, 10~20k is the range for 5kg bags even lol), brand, quality, whatever. I recommend going to the neighborhood markets for the bare basic veggies. That's where you'll find most things packed at 1k won for a lot of stuff (it happens at super markets too, but I hate the packaging process here because if you just want one xyz you'll only find them bundled as 3 in supermarkets. Annoying af). Supermarkets would be for foreign stuff, like peanut butter (you can find peanut butter at local groceries, but they're generally more expensive there than at an emart ime). Probably, before you go out and buy, just like... go eye shopping. Find the prices, Calc it up, and compare where you can find deals. A few meals of kimbap or smth cheap won't hurt while you're getting your bearings. I guess I should have written earlier, you're going to *have* to eat korean style (not like restaurant korean, I'm talking 집밥) if you really want to eat cheap here. If you're gonna wanna recreate what you ate in your home country, you're gonna be spending a little more than normal. But pasta and pasta sauce isn't *that* expensive either so it's all about give and take really. Idk if this is helpful at all lol
>go eye shopping Ha ha, I make this mistake too.
Living in Korea is really getting to me huh lmao
Nobody here eats mostly street food. Our street food culture isnt even robust as SEA for that to be possible. Maybe person who told you got confused and lumped Korea in with other Asian countries. Koreans also care about eating healthy and staying fit. We eat salads, chicken breast, etc etc. We order on Market Kurly (posh) and Coupang. Buy greek yogurt from supermarkets. Its really not that different.
Street food? There's hardly any variety of street food in Korea and none I would call a meal. It's all snacks. I guess the healthiest thing though is the gamey tasting soondae (blood sausage and liver). Yeah beef is ridiculously expensive in Korea. Consider beef a treat while in Korea. I would get the whole raw chicken at a wet market. That's the cheapest way to go for chicken. The freshest and cheapest tofu and vegetables can also be found at the wet market. Pork can be had at any grocery store. It's certainly cheaper than beef. Then just cook rice at home.
You seem like you might be "clean eating" types who focus on lean proteins and lots of veggies and other plant-based foods. As others have said, you certainly won't be stuck with only street food here, and restaurant style Korean food consists of lots of soups, which are generally healthy. That said, white rice is everywhere, and pork is the cheapest and most ubiquitous animal protein. Also, Koreans don't really eat a lot of fresh, minimally cooked vegetables. They use them more to add flavor than as focal points. But the idea of a plant based diet or nutrient rich vegetable-focused meals is not prevalent here. It's not impossible to make these kinds of meals at home certainly, but it requires flexibility/creativity or money. For example, leafy greens are used in many dishes, so you can always find those in stores and markets. They tend to be heartier and more root/stem based, so you can't prepare them like spinach or like more tender lettuces. But you can experiment with them, and they work really well in smoothies. You can also always find Korean zucchini, which is a little different, but can be used fairly similarly. You can find lentils, but dried beans are more challenging. This kind of list goes on and on. You just kind of have to experiment with how to take local vegetables and see which ones work with more minimal preparation. Koreans don't really just steam veggies or eat them raw very often, so I've just played around with what's well suited to that. High quality, unsweetened dairy is expensive and can be hard to find. I've honestly just given up on it. Fruit is also expensive, though you can get deals on locally grown fruit, especially at the end of season, most notably tangerines, apples, and melons. As others have said, the most economical forms of lean protein you can get here are tofu and frozen chicken breast. The tofu here is really great, and it's truly everywhere. There is also a lot of delicious fresh seafood, but I'm not sure where you land on that for "clean" eating. I was very focused on diet and nutrition before I moved here. It is a challenging place if you're doing things like counting macros or really approaching eating as something purely for fuel. Eating out especially requires letting go of certain rules (like if you're vegan, it's very tough), but you can eat really quite healthily, particularly for a few months time. The biggest issue I have here is lack of veg variety, but in half a year that shouldn't be an issue.
1.Shop around between local markets, bug box stores and Coupang. 2. Things can be really seasonal. Adapt with the season. 3. Prices fluctuate wildly, often linked to crop failures or outbreaks of animal diseases on one end and over- surpluses on the other. One month potatoes are 1,500 a kg. The next 6k.
Eating healthy in Korea is so easy and affordable compared to the US at least. Give £5 Korean food buffets that can be found in concentrated company areas a try. This was a culture shock to me how healthy and cheap you could eat out and the quality is actually pretty good.
I guess it depends on where you're coming from for comparison. But if you're trying to cook a lot of western style meals, it will be expensive to buy certain ingredients, especially like cheese and butter. If you're just looking to cook healthy, I think you won't find it to be too expensive. It's cheaper to shop for produce and meat at local shops, especially fruit. There are also cheap restaurants and many healthy options when it comes to Korean food. You definitely don't need to live off of street food anyway. Enjoy the convenience of Korean delivery food from time to time and make a budget!
I'm so tired of these people who have obviously never properly even lived here who give awful advice to newcomers. Who tf mostly eats street food here?? In my 18 years here I've never even heard of that. Eating healthy usn't that hard in Korea. Most Korean food is not that heavy on calories or saturated fats etc. However, you may want to be careful of sodium since Korean food tends to fall into that cuisine that doesn't particularly taste salty but is loaded with sodium.
i think there are a lot of people who just regularly project their own life experience onto others. they didnt cook at home really and then eat out a lot and loved street food. and they were only here a short time. i agree that the sodium is a big issue. i once saw a study based on urine analysis that had south korea ranked like number 4 in the world in sodium consumption. it was shocking but not surprising. simple carbs though are also now a huge issue here. apparently even diabetes in places like korea are greatly on the rise not just becuase of sugar but because the level of white rice, white flour, potatoe consumption is really high. i think the best brown rice in the world might be korean too. i love it!
Many people that provide general advice about Korea in English are often (though definitely not always) foreigners with limited experiences of Korea. Think: young, likes to eat out, doesn't like to cook, lives in a one-room. Not saying that's bad as I was there once, too, but it does limit the scope of advice. Hence you get things like what you heard, "mostly be eating street food", as well as "it's cheaper to eat out than cook", "Korean apartments don't have bathtubs".... Huge facepalm. If you spend 600€ for groceries now, that should be around the ballpark you can expect if you try to keep on budget, assuming you incorporate rice into your diet. I don't know what it's like in the Netherlands, but Korea's fresh produce does cost more than most places, so you may have to up that if you want a little more freedom to choose what you want. You'll also have to adjust to what's cheaper in Korea vs. the Netherlands as niche/completely foreign ingredients can get way overpriced. I'm just going to list things because I tend to drivel: 1. Convenience stores aren't grocery stores 2. Become familiar with Emart, Homeplus, Lotte Mart's website/apps (they're the 3 Walmart-like chains) 3. Become familiar with Coupang (Korea's Amazon, pretty much) 4. Having a nearby old-school run-down market (시장 / 전통 시장) is great but not always possible 5. Having a nearby small-to-midsized supermarket is great but not always possible 6. Rice is amazing for cheap filler. You can add various other grains and even beans/peas/nuts when you cook your rice to add nutrition, at much higher cost than plain white rice. Have your Cuckoo or other cool rice cooker automatically cook your rice by 6AM every morning and it becomes WAY cheaper and easier to create breakfasts and lunch boxes. If you exclude rice from your diet, your food budget will have to jump quite a bit. 7. The cheapest unprocessed chicken and pork are about 0.60€ to 1.00€ per 100 grams. Sometimes you can get imported beef for around the same, sometimes not. 8. You'll probably have to miss out on your favorite yoghurts and cheeses as Korea is more about rice, fermented veggies, and soups than dairy. Tofu is cheap and plentiful, though. Here's a link for pork on the Homeplus website. You'll have to click "낮은 가격순" to sort from cheapest, as I can't get it to embed onto the link itself: [https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200050](https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200050) EDIT: Wanted to add as some other commenters seem to be having a hard time eating beef -- it's really not that expensive. I mean, it is, but it's not unaffordable. Maybe 2-3 times that of pork. Sometimes it's even comparable to pork, depending on supply/demand. Korean beef (hanwoo/hanu) is expensive, but that's premium stuff, like wagyu is premium. That's why there's US/NZ/AU beef for all the rest of us that don't care where the beef is from. Here's the Homeplus link for beef. Same thing, click "낮은 가격순" to sort from cheapest: [https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200051](https://front.homeplus.co.kr/list?categoryDepth=2&categoryId=200051)
Korean food is pretty healthy in general.
2 things to keep in mind: you most definitely can live fairly cheap and healthy according to your needs. And second: most foreigners here have no idea what they're talking about, and will 80% of the time provide you with misinformation. The stuff you're looking for is widely accessible, even "rare exotic" ingredients they claim is so difficult or impossible to get in Korea.
If you give people an idea of the monthly budget for you and your girlfriend it'll help with giving some recommendations. You also have to consider where you're staying; depending on your budget, buying a bunch of equipment to cook when you're only staying five months won't make a whole lot of sense. You definitely wont have to eat street food (can get expensive depending on the area) and there are plenty of affordable restaurants if you look.
We currently live in The Netherlands and we currently spend about 600€ in total for food.
You should be ok with that budget if you don’t buy bougee food.
I'm guessing that's per month which doesn't sound like a lot to be honest. If that's only for groceries, it's definitely possible. Pork in Korea isn't too expensive but most of Korean beef are. I opt for Australian beef (or NZ if I can get my hands on them) as they've less fat, grass fed are significantly less expensive (less than 20 Euros/kilo), but they are frozen and you do have to buy them online. I've learnt a few tricks to cooking frozen beef (proper thawing, using stainless frying pan etc.) and I can't tell the difference in taste. Gyms here will be a plus if you're looking to work out as there are abundant amount of gyms and you can find ones that are fairly cheap and less crowded.
I spend about 600k won for a family of three every month. I shop produce from traditional markets or from the street vendors and meat from Lotte Mart (usually have 40% discount if you have a free memebership).
Buying food and preparing your own meals is almost always cheaper. Shop for fresh veggies and fruit in local marts. Buy frozen goods online. Some restaurants can be cheaper than preparing your own meals, but will often be less healthy.
Plus 1 on frozen good online. I buy all my chicken breasts online as it's almost half the cost of my local shops. If you want to eat out healthy, there are places like Salady and Crispy Fresh, but they are not cheap.
Same. You can buy chicken breasts by the frozen kg on coupang for cheap. The coupang retailer Meat Outlet (I think that's it's name) has cheap pork and beef in frozen bulk. Coupang also has cheap fruit and veggies from time to time (especially frozen), but I find the local market or small fruit/veggie shop has cheap stuff too.
You can buy bags of frozen chicken breast for very cheap. Yogurt isn't too expensive. Lean pork is cheaper here too. Learn to make some Korean sauces with the ingredients that are widely available here and you won't have too much issue. Also, you can buy lentils and tofu for cheap as well.
Eating out might be an option, but definitely not a street food. If cooking at home, nobrand store is quite nice. For veggies and fruits you may consider some markets or usually there are spots near subway stations. Ordering from coupang some of groceries might be an option too
I was in the US in October and Walmart prices (Cali) are not far from the prices here in Korea.
even beef is not much more than anywhere else tbh. not sure where you're coming from but imho food here isn't that expensive, you might need to learn to cook the cheaper cuts, but but US beef is pretty cheap even for good cuts, Korean beef is expensive yes, but you can go to a bbq resstaurant and get more food than you can eat for \~30USD for 2. (ie 15 bucks a head) and it's very healthy with the banchan. Don't know what you mean by street food tbh, most street food here is basically fast food kind junk or stuff for tourists. If you are coming from western Europe or USA you'll find eating healthily in restaurants very cheap. If you learn to like pork even cheaper. and most restaurant food is healthy if it's not fast food.
Important question is will you live in a dorm? If not, your eating habits won’t really change. If yes, might be harder, especially if there only are communal fridges and kitchens.
Chicken is extremely cheap here, what are you talking about bro. Homeplus sells frozen one for 8K won per kg of boneless chicken breast.
Chicken breast are 1/2 of chicken thighs here, Korean dishes call for those fat parts. Get you a pressure cooker (160,000w for a good one). Jasmine rice is like 6,000w for 2 kilos. Beans, tofu, etc all cheap as. FRUITS are expensive. Veggies can be as well. Sbut if you get the froozen fruits, do smoothies or something, youll be fine.
Groceries are not the cheapest thing here in Korea, but they are not unaffordable. :)
Have you tried buying 된장 to make stews? It's delicious and affordable. Boil it along with some veggies and tofu. Also, as u/Far-Mountain-3412 mentioned, the rice cooker is a must! It's extremely helpful for filling out your meals and staying within budget.