If I told you that the brownies pictured are the best brownies I’ve had in a long time and  they are vegan…would you believe me?

Most importantly would you want to try them? …?

Well this is precisely how I found Mipa Lee!

When embarking on a 30 day vegan challenge back in March, I read about her deliciously deceiving vegan baked goods from another blogger here in South Korea.

I wanted to try some of her vegan sweets and placed an order. At the same time I started perusing her blog and was intrigued by her musing as a vegan living in South Korea.

I think it was perfect timing that I found her blog during my experimentation with veganism.

 It became a great resource for me and I ordered tons of vegan baked goods to try.

I loved her recipes, accidental vegan finds and restaurant reviews!

Apart from her amazing blog, her life is pretty interesting too and I hope you enjoy learning more about her!

You can check out her blog here: https://aliensdayout.com/

AND

The vegan bake shop here: https://www.aliensbakeshop.com/index.html *

*She only delivers in South Korea though…for now anyway 🙂

Please tell us about yourself.

I’m Mipa Lee, blogger and vegan baker of the Alien’s Day Out blog and bakeshop.

Actually, I don’t create many recipes for Korean dishes. When it comes to savory dishes, my “recipes” are very imprecise. In fact, I usually don’t like to give formal recipes for them because I can never bother to measure the ingredients. I like to just use whatever ingredients I have on hand and improvise with various spices and herbs. I guess my process for baking is not that much different. Perhaps a little more organized and premeditated, but still pretty organic and free-flowing most of the time. I get inspiration from random ingredients at the market or in my pantry, as well as various recipe books, blogs. Sometimes I’ll adapt a vegan recipe, and other times I’ll try to veganize a non-vegan one.

Photo credit Mipa Lee

I never really thought to compare my baking process with my art process, but now that I think of it, they are pretty similar. I rarely go into something with a perfectly laid out plan… And even if I do have a plan, it often changes along the way. I’ll start out with one or two ideas for inspiration, or a concept, and then I’ll just dive into it and see where it takes me. A lot of my baking is also just me playing around in the kitchen and testing whether something will work or not.
I never really know how something is going to turn out….

Honestly, it took me sometime to figure out your unique blog title. It wasn’t until I looked through your calendar that I realized the cute little  people were aliens. What do these characters represent and what is their story? Are the aliens vegan? 🙂

Well, the title isn’t specifically related to my illustrations, but I do like to draw non-human creatures that live in their own made-up world. They’re not necessarily vegans, but just odd creatures in a strange land. ‘Alien’s Day Out’ is basically about how we are all aliens in some sense, trying to connect with people and explore this beautiful land that is Korea. As someone who has lived abroad most of my life, I felt like an alien when I returned to Korea in 2006. My parents were here but I didn’t have any friends, my Korean language skills were practically non-existent, I struggled with the differences in Korean culture and relating to native Koreans. I wanted to show that even though we might feel like the odd one out sometimes (especially as veg*ans), we can still go out and enjoy the day, thrive, explore, connect with others, and enjoy life.

What is the one thing you miss eating in Ghana , the Ivory Coast and your college town?

From Ghana, I miss my favorite vegan dish: red red with fried plantains. Red red is a dish made from black eye peas and simmered for a long time in a spicy tomato-based sauce. It’s often served with a side of gooey fried plantains which are crazy-good. From Ivory Coast, I would say that I just miss the fresh French baguettes that we got every morning. As for my college town in PA, honestly, I don’t miss a whole lot from the cafeteria there. I just remember eating a lot of unhealthy SAD food, such as bagels, fries, ice cream, etc… foods that I rarely crave now. One thing I miss though, is at Temple University, there’s a French crepe truck that I was obsessed with. This was before I was vegetarian so I wouldn’t eat there now (unless they have a vegan version), but their crepes were so good.

When I did my 30-day Vegan challenge it was hard to explain to the teachers in my school what is veganism. I usually told them I will eat like a Monk.  How do you explain to the older generation in Korea what veganism is and what it means to you?

Honestly, I don’t know many older generation Koreans… Sometimes I’ll meet older relatives and have to explain what I do and don’t eat. A lot of them don’t understand it and I get some resistance, such as “why don’t you just eat fish? That’s from the sea, which is clean and natural!” Especially because my relatives are born and raised in Busan, the seafood capital of Korea.

Photo credit Mipa Lee

But I try to remind myself that it’s not my job to try to convince them to change their diet, or even try to make them fully understand me. I actually think your explanation is really good… Koreans are familiar with Buddhist cuisine, so that might make veganism seem less foreign or strange.

 

How many hours a week do you spend sketching, blogging and baking?

Photo credit Mipa Lee

Anyone can message me on the Facebook page, or email me at aliensdayout@gmail.com

I have a twitter account, but I’m not active…. yet.