Another quickie post…
headed to San Francisco for my cousin’s wedding recently, and went on a bento-supply hunt. See, in my neck of the woods (NYC), we have everything- everything except inexpensive, accessible bento supplies. For some reason, NYC stores that offer bento items tend to charge oh, $5+ for items that in California go for $1-1.50. What the heck??? Or they don’t have a wide selection, whatever it is, so this led me to my search in the SF area for supplies to satisfy my urges.
Which led me to this list on Lunch in a Box– Biggie even kindly helped me out via email, telling me which places to definitely stop by, since I had limited time to shop for bento, this helped out greatly. I printed out both lists, marked off the stores cross-referenced, and I was off.
The results are posted here, on my bento site (I haven’t gotten around to announcing it, huh? Sorry about that…)
In any case, the point is, the list led me to Kukje Supermarket, a large Korean supermarket right off the 280. Aside from the huge housewares section when you go in to the left, on the right there is a little eating area, popular in many Korean markets. You could order some foods freshly made to eat at tables scattered around, such as rice dishes or whatnot…
but my main attraction were the packaged ban chan items that I’m used to getting at Korean BBQ joints. There were gim bap ($3; Korean styled sushi, with pickled radish, rice, sometimes “crab”, assorted items, wrapped in seaweed; left of the picture), jhap chae ($3.50; glass noodles with sesame oil, assorted veggies; top right of the picture), chicken wings in a sweet and spicy glaze ($4.99)… and FeistyMom picked up some spicy marinated squid or fishies- I forget which- from the pay-by-the-pound banchan area. (Banchan, for those unfamiliar, is basically these little dishes of various items that you usually get free at the beginning of your meal. Like a “relish tray” that you might get at a deli or diner, except with Korean pickled items, or whatever they really want to give you.)
**Trip down memory lane:
When I was growing up, I did not eat spicy foods, ever. Though I was a fairly “adventurous” (in quotes because it’s not like I sought out to try new things, my parents forced me to, but I would eat them and usually like them) eater, I did not have too much experience with Korean food. There are a lot of reasons why, one of them being that I had a Korean friend in 3rd grade who invited me over for a family BBQ (we were the only two Asian kids in her class, and I imagine her parents wanted her to have some Asian friends), and though I don’t recall exactly what I ate, I know I started crying because my mouth was on fire. She didn’t understand, having grown up with spicy foods, and though we remained friends, I distinctly recall going home very hungry. So I imagine I was pretty biased… but when I was in high school, my parents went to a Korean supermarket, probably similar to Kukje, and picked up gim bap, which I adored when I tried it- I could eat the whole try on my own, and was never allowed to, which strikes me as odd because I was painfully underweight at the time and usually they encouraged me to eat as much of anything as I could- and a tray of these BBQ chicken wings. Except these were red. And painfully spicy. For some reason, though, with those wings, I soldiered on, and devoured a bunch before my parents were like, “You’re sweating and crying, isn’t it too spicy for you?” and I shook my head no and kept eating. Everytime they went back, they would pick up a tray of gim bap and a tray of the wings, but one day the place stopped having the wings! I have NEVER found the same wings again; they are always not spicy when I have them now. I never picked up on the Korean name for it, so I can’t even ask for it…
*shakes head* Sorry about that, this is supposed to be a quick post.
Our first day there and we’d hit all these stores, but since we were still running on NYC time, we weren’t too hungry by that time. So we picked up the above items, and decided to be a little ghetto and take them back to our hotel (an hour away in Sonoma Valley) to eat, since logically we’d be hungry by the time we got up there.
The gim bap was super fresh and tasty, while the jhap chae was surprisingly extremely good. I mean, there’s a standard I wouldn’t expect it to fall below, but this was way better than that standard- there were a lot of fresh veggies mixed throughout, and even meat. For $3.50, this was a steal. The chicken wings were delicious as well- soft, sweet, and chili peppers sprinkled around so if one so chose, the wings could be very spicy. I didn’t eat the peppers, though. As for the spicy stuff my mom got- I tried some and it was super spicy. She really liked it, though.
One last note: I thought everything was super cheap and well done. Of course, I might be biased because it’s definitely cheaper than comparable items at a similar supermarket in NYC. It might be the most expensive of its kind in that area, for all I know, but it was definitely fresher and tastier than I’m used to from the supermarkets here. Also, on our way out, we picked up a bottle of this “barley tea” that I wound up really liking and haven’t been able to find in NYC! Any help? I mean, I’ve found small bottles for $2.50 (literally like 8 oz!) but this was a huge bottle for 99c. It was unsweetened and though it was brown in color, reminded me of this tea-ish drink I had once at a Korean friend’s home; he said that most Korean families kept this in their fridge instead of water to serve to guests, and it had a mild flavor to it. (You can see my cup in the bottom of the picture.) I wound up adding the teensiest bit of Splenda to it, just to take the edge off, but it was very refreshing and yummy and I was very sad to have to throw out more than half the bottle when we went to the airport.
Yvo says: I liked this store for a myriad of reasons, including but definitely not limited to the wide variety of prepared foods that you could buy. It was clean, a good amount of parking, and the staff was friendly even though we were clearly not Korean (not too common in NYC- maybe they aren’t unfriendly, but these people were super friendly), and the overall experience was just very nice. The prices on everything, including groceries, seemed to be a bit cheaper than normal as well. If I were in the area, I would definitely go back for some cheap Korean banchan items.
recommended
Kelly says
I don’t know what kind of barley tea you had, but I love to make barley water in the summer… a cup of barley, 2 quarts water, cover, bring to a boil, then simmer for a half hour. Strain into a pitcher and add honey and/or lemon to taste. Throw it in the fridge…Delish!
Anonymous says
Barley tea = Bo Ri Cha. It is tasty as it is, without adding any condiments–all the Koreans I know drink like that. Though, it is most often mixed with corn (Ok Su Su). That makes it that much tastier 🙂
Stephanie says
The spicy chicken wings sound delicious. I have been to a very small place in San Francisco that had ones exactly like that, but I forget the name as it was somewhere my Korean friend took me one rainy day just to get out of the rain. You could try looking (in NY this would work too) on http://www.gatheringguide.com/ec/caterers.html for places in your area and just trying them until you find one that serves them like you remember.