Allergic Emergency

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    • #50211
      MoarMooMooPlz
      Participant

      —->This is more of a language question.<—-

      And don’t worry, I’ve been a fan of Maangchi for a long while and I cook a lot of recipes! But I’m too embarrassed to take pictures of them and post them. I let the stomach judge for itself. I always find ways to sub the spicy ingredients with something else or just don’t put them in. I even know how to make non-spicy kimchi now! :D

      But the problem is, whenever I go to a restaurant with non-English speaking Korean waiters, it’s rather hard to tell them I cannot have any spicy ingredients on my food.

      I’m allergic to capsicum, which is used a lot in Korean cuisines.

      I went to a Korean restaurant and ordered gamjatang and tried to tell the waitress “no maepda”. But she had a hard time understanding what I was repeating, so she thought I meant MORE spicy-ness in the soup. I got sent to the hospital shortly after my first slurp of the soup haha…(but it’s okay! It’s not her fault, I went back to forgive her and ordered something else until I could fix the problem…xD)

      So please, tell me…what is the correct way to say “I don’t want anything spicy.” or “I’m allergic to spicy foods.”?

      Thank you for the time and I deeply apologize for the complications!

      I literally owe you my life if the question is answered. Thank you!

    • #54904
      Maangchi
      Keymaster

      I’m sorry to hear that you were sent to the hospital because of the spicy food!

      “I don’t want anything spicy.”: Jeo- neun maewoon eumshik mot meogeo yo”

      mot: pronounce the “o” as “o” as orange

      Or take a note written in English to your Korean restaurant. I think they will understand the words at least. Or show the english memo to another customer(Korean) in the restaurant to let them help you order your food.

    • #54905
      MoarMooMooPlz
      Participant

      Thank you Maangchi! You are a life saver. Funny how I’m reading this and eating chocolate hoddeok at the same time…

      I was afraid you would get angry at me for asking but now I am relieved! phewwwww

    • #54906

      When I was spending my first couple weeks in Korea as a study abroad student, my friends and I, the ones who didn’t really know how to speak korean, just pointed to what we wanted, and asked in a question, Maepda, or Maepsimnida if we wanted to know. Then just look for the head nod or shake. Or you can ask in my way, Maewuh uhppsuhyo? meaning spiciness doesn’t exist? 매워 없어요?

      Maybe you were just pronouncing it wrong? Maewuh/Maepda,Maepsimnida, the Mae is just May.

      Hope this helps some.

      PS. I don’t follow the standard Romanized Korean, hence why my uh are suppose to be eo.

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