Grocery Shopping In Korea

Tuesday, February 4, 2003

I am about to go grocery shopping in Korea for the first time. I am excited and more than a little nervous. I don't know what to expect or how I will make out since I don't speak the language. But since I've finally gotten to a bank and managed to cash some Traveller's Cheques and changed the money into Korean Won nothing is stopping me from going shopping except my own apprehension. Yippee! This means I can finally go shopping. So far I've been in Korea over a week and so far I've lived on just orange juice, bread and peanut butter.

The other Westerners have told me that the best place for foreigners to buy groceries in Korea is to go to large department store. Fortunately, our city, Gumi, has an E-Mart department store. It is sort of like Wal Mart only it's Korean and it has a grocery store in the basement. I go up to the roof of my apartment to look around and get my bearings. I can see the huge E-Mart sign and get the basic direction in my head. So off I go. Other than just going to the local corner store this is will the first time I have gone to either a department or grocery store in Korea. I am excited but a little nervous. I wonder what it will be like.

This is the huge E-Mart sign I can see from the roof of my apartment. It is like a beacon calling me.

There is a mannequin dressed as a diver in the fish section of the local E-Mart. I bump into it and apologize before I realize it is only a display. I notice several Koreans looking at me and laughing. I guess it's not everyday they see a goofy foreigner that not only apologizes for bumping into people but inanimate objects. (Did I mention that in Korea there are so many people that bumping into someone is inevitable so people don't apologize to one anther.)

This is the fish section of E-Mart. I love all types of seafood and the fish is relatively cheap so I am happy to have found this counter. The man who works there is shouting out something in Korean. I decide it must be something like, "Buy my fish. It's really fresh."

Here is some kind of shellfish that's for sale. I like this picture cause it shows the Hangul [Korean characters] on the sign. I want to buy this and try it but I am unsure how long I would have to boil it and then how I would go about digging it out of the shell to eat later. And, unfortunately there is no one who speaks enough English for me to ask.

I want to buy a plant to make my room and apartment more homey and I had an aloe vera plant back home so I want to buy one here but I can't find one. I think maybe they don't have them in Korea and then I see this HUGE aloe stalks for sale in the supermarket. It makes me more determined than ever to find a small one for my apartment. They have a drink made with chunks of aloe vera in it and it is worderfullly refreshing and tasty.

These are mushrooms. The Koreans call them Pangie (it means a spinning toy top in Korean and they are called this because the heads look like the rounded stick the toy top spins on). I saw "Nora" making an omelet at her apartment and I didn't know what they were. She told me they are mushrooms and that they taste the same as the Portobello mushrooms we use back home and are a lot less expensive. You can get 5 bunches of them for around 1,000 won or a little over $ 1.00 CDN.

I see packages of this octopus for sale at the supermarket. I love fish and shellfish but this is taking it a bit too far even for me. I can't imagine how it is cooked and prepared and then I remember calamari [squid] and suddenly it doesn't seem so far fetched.

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I am excited by all the food to be found. A lot of it is unfamiliar but there is Western food, too. I find yogurt and pasta and cans of Campbell's soup and even some prepared pasta and potato salad in the deli section. This is a great relief to me cause although I thought I liked spicey food and I do if it's Mexican, Thai food or even Indian curry. However I have come to realize in the last week that I don't like red pepper paste. And, I am realizing that this is going to be a big problem here in Korea. Maybe I will have to learn to cook. I never did much more than make toast or heat up soup back home but I have a feeling that this is about to change.

P.s. I figured out that when you buy food in Korea by also have to buy the plastic bag. They ask you something at the cash register that I couldn't understand or make sense of it until the clerk held up a plastic bag and said, "1 or 2?" So I said two and was charged about 10 won - about 4 cents in CDN money and I proceeded to pack my groceries and leave the store.

My successful shopping adventure is over and I feel good. I am finding my way around Korea [my new home] and so far I am surviving.