A Culinary Revolution with Gosari — Gosari Revolution, Gosari Express

Stepping into Gosari Express, a vegetarian restaurant, feels like being teleported to a local eatery on a Hong Kong street. The bold graffiti etched into the entrance window, the green wallpaper and orange chairs under dim lighting, and the illustrations made from receipts—it’s an atmosphere completely unlike any vegetarian restaurant we’ve known. We spoke with Kim Jeeun, CEO of Gosari Express, about her singular approach to vegetarian food, one as distinctive as the restaurant’s interior.

Interviewer Parc Jinmyoung
Interviewee Kim Jeeun (CEO of Bad Carrot)

Could you give us a brief introduction to Gosari Express?
It’s a noodle shop and dining brand under the food startup Bad Carrot, with a mission to make vegetarian food more casual and approachable. The concept is a time-honored noodle joint run by a granddaughter who inherited her grandmother’s noodle stall in the market. We chose noodles as our main menu to appeal to all age groups visiting Seoul Jungang Market in Sindang-dong. And noodles call for drinks, so we also serve soju and beer, along with makgeolli cocktails, wine, and highballs.

I heard you moved here to Sindang-dong from Mangwon-dong last June.
We used to run ‘Gosari by Bad Carrot,’ a pop-up store for seasonal ingredients near Mangwon Market, before coming here. Actually, Bad Carrot started out selling pasta sauce made from gosari (bracken fern) oil online, and I always felt it was a shame that consumers weren’t using the sauce to its full potential. So we opened a physical store to show people, ‘Cooked this way, it’s truly delicious!’ At Gosari by Bad Carrot, we sold pasta made with two vegetables chosen by the customer from that day’s seasonal ingredients. At Gosari Express, we offer classic noodles based on the gosari oil sauce, along with dishes like perilla seed bibim noodles and noodle tteokbokki, as well as vegetable dishes that pair well with drinks, such as grilled napa cabbage and wonton soup.

What did you do before starting this business?
I’ve been cooking since high school. During college, I ran a food truck, which was how I really got into the food business. Back then, I sold simple meals like Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and banh mi.

I heard you encountered gosari as if it were fate. Could you tell us that story in detail?
This happened after I closed the food truck business, while I was running a bibimbap restaurant commissioned by an F&B brand. One day, a delivery mistake brought us 5 kilograms of gosari instead of chwinamul (aster). At the time, I was losing interest in cooking, but as I thought about what to do with the gosari, I started wondering, ‘Why aren’t vegetable-based sauces more common?’ I thought, why not make a seasoning like chicken stock or kelp? That’s how, through crowdfunding, gosari pesto and then gosari oil pasta sauce came into the world, one after another.

What kind of potential did you see after selling the gosari oil pasta sauce?
After launching the product, I agonized a lot over what the next step should be. If I couldn’t find the right direction, I was ready to shut the business down. That’s when my older sister, who lives in New York, told me about *Black VegFest, and thinking it was my last chance, I flew to New York. The positive response we got there made me realize I didn’t have to stick to the domestic market—I could aim for markets abroad. We currently export the gosari oil sauce to the U.S., and it’s popular enough to frequently sell out.
*An event first held in 2018 by a Black vegan activist, combining Black liberation with vegan culture. It takes place every August in Brooklyn, New York.

I’m curious how you source ingredients, including gosari.
Gosari Express’s identity isbold, vivid vegetable flavors. Our ultimate goal is to reduce carbon emissions and create vegetable dishes that everyone enjoys, not just vegetarians. That’s why food mileage matters so much to us, and it’s also why our store is located near the market. Right now, aside from the gosari we source from Namyangju, we buy most of our ingredients from the market. The sad reality is that gosari farms are steadily disappearing. It’s gotten to the point where, because of gosari supply issues, we’ve even considered opening a second location on Jeju Island (laughs).

How do you develop your menu?
I tend to get inspired by everyday life. Once, at an udon restaurant, I saw people picking out the ssukgat (crown daisy) from their udon and setting it aside, and I suddenly felt so bad for the ssukgat. Wondering if there was a way to make people enjoy eating it, I created the ssukgat bibim noodles—made with gosari oil sauce, ssukgat, napa cabbage, and vegan butter.

As soon as I walked in, I thought of restaurants from the Chinese-speaking world.
That’s because it’s an homage to Panda Express, the American fast-casual Chinese restaurant chain! I really wanted to energize vegetarian dining the way Panda Express is accessible and everywhere across America. That’s also why we put graffiti on the storefront window instead of a sign—to lower the barrier to entry for a vegetarian restaurant. Just as I intended, more and more customers come in simply because they were curious what kind of place this is while passing by.

I’m curious about the tree-shaped Lego toys covering the entrance wall.
Think of them as coupons. When we calculate the carbon footprint of making our gosari oil sauce, each product sold protects about 0.7 trees (calculating objectively, we’ve reduced about 50 tons of carbon emissions since opening last June). We also support a forest conservation program in Inje, Gangwon-do. We give out the Lego trees so customers can feel that their menu choices are helping reduce carbon footprints. After paying, customers receive a Lego leaf to place on the tree labeled with their name. Once you collect 11 leaves, you can exchange them for a meal kit.

Was there a place or trip that inspired you while preparing Gosari Express?
Before opening the store, I went to the U.K. I wanted to experience BAO, a British dining brand specializing in Taiwanese-style buns. What’s distinctive about BAO is that each location operates with a different concept. For instance, a branch near a market sells street food, while a branch in an upscale apartment complex operates as a brunch café. I got a lot of interior design ideas for making the most of small spaces there, too.

If you could visit any country for vegetable cuisine, where would it be?
Kyoto, Japan, has developed a rich vegetable cuisine thanks to its basin geography, surrounded by mountains on three sides. Pickled vegetables, in particular, are famous there. I’d love to learn how to make Kyoto-style pickled vegetables and use them in our side dishes.

Are there any menus or spaces you’d like to create in the future?
First, at the end of March, we plan to launch meal kit versions of our gosari perilla seed bibim noodles and ssukgat bibim noodles, currently sold in-store. Making a cup noodle version of gosari hangover soup is a long-standing goal of mine—personally, I love having drinks with ramyeon. Since 2023, I’ve been working on a powdered soup base using the gosari oil sauce, but it’s not easy. Still, I’m aiming to launch it sometime this year. Foreign customers often tell me they’re disappointed there’s no vegetarian restaurant at Incheon International Airport. Our ultimate goal is to be the first vegetarian restaurant to open in an airport. It won’t be easy, but we have to try.