If you're anything like my family, there's no way that you can buy all your groceries at the traditional American supermarket. Our fridge is filled mainly by Trader Joe's, followed by bi-monthly-ish trips to the Korean market (or my Korean mommy's generosity), and then finally filled out by odd trips to the Albertson's down the street.
Yesterday we made the short trip down the freeway to LA's Koreatown, where there seems to be a Korean market on every other major cross street. We stopped to eat jajangmyun for lunch, but mainly we are on a mission to buy rice. Real Korean-style rice, not the crap that we've been surviving on from the Asian foods section of Albertson's.
Here's what we picked up (notice it leans heavily towards the pre-prepared side of things):
big old bag of white rice
frozen Chinese-style steamed buns
kimchee
kongnamul
fresh spinach
tofu (firm and soft)
instant jajjangmyun (from the refridgerated section)
Japanese-style miso paste
daikon radish
shitake mushrooms
meat for kalbi jjim
goguma (sweet potato)
Chinese cabbage
yellow Korean melons (I don't know the Korean name...)
strawberries
and, I couldn't resist...POCKY!
What's on your Korean (or Asian) market shopping list? If you don't live near a Korean market, how do you make do?
- Nina
