Hello! from Hannam: The Super Wal-Mart of Seoul

After "The First 24 Hours" it was time to get down to the serious business of procuring some necessities for the apartment. RCP had to blaze the trail in the home goods and grocery department before I arrived and did quite an amazing job in finding the equivalent of a Super Wal-Mart. So we did have some toilet paper, one roll of paper towels, toilet bowl cleaner, a floor mop (still unopened), one pot, three plates, three bowls, silverware for four (not sure what the fourth person would eat on though), four glasses, and a coffee mug when I arrived. When I asked "Why did you buy an odd number of plates?" he answered "Because they came in a pack of 3."

As for the food that I found in the kitchen, RCP had also obtained only the bare necessities (for a boy): Pepsi, orange juice, a pack of chicken breasts, a package of spaghetti, a jar of sauce, pepper, oregano, basil, instant coffee, a pack of lemon verbena tea bags, and some "Chewable Eye Vitamin" (a.k.a. vitamin A).

Obviously it doesn't take a lot for boys to live in a foreign country for two months.

Time to go to E-Mart!

The Super Wal-Mart Equivalent

E-Mart is part of a large mall-like complex called I-Park, somewhat West of where we live and a short 10 minute cab ride. The mall part is very similar to malls in the states, except they very logically place ALL discounted merchandise on the main floor at the entrance. So you enter into tables lining the walls and racks of clothes....everything from discounted bedding to kitchen supplies to furs. This is where RCP purchased his pot (he then went back and purchased the rest of the set when I asked him over the phone why he only bought one pot). The sales associate in the discount bedding area actually remembered him and he had told her I was arriving soon, so I met her and we had nice little exchange.

I-Park Mall

Before beginning the shopping, we decided to have some lunch. On each floor there are about 4-5 restaurants, either Korean, Thai or Chinese. No Western typical mall food court chains here. Certainly no Chick fil A :-( (Koreans do love fried chicken, so I wonder if they'd entertain the idea of putting one in.....hmmmm......) All of the restaurants have beautifully colorful window displays of each dish they offer, all made out of VERY realistic looking plastic. It is actually all quite appetizing and enticing.

After checking out each window's offerings, we opted for bibimbap.

If you aren't a culinary risk-taker like myself, bibimbap is the perfect dish to start developing a Korean palette with. For those of you not familiar with it, the word literally means "mixed meal." It is served in a heavy ceramic/stone bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating with a long spoon. And as you stir, the heat of the bowl continues to cook the ingredients. Vegetables commonly used in bibimbap include julienned cucumber, zucchini, mushrooms, doraji (bellflower root), and gim, as well as spinach, soybean sprouts, and gosari (bracken fern stems).

Also interesting to note regarding service in a restaurant and Korean eating habits; some places will seat you but some you seat yourself, the waitress won't come up to you and ask for your order, you have to flag them over, except for maybe in a very expensive restaurant, and they don't really drink anything with their meal. They will usually eat their meal first, then have something to drink, and it's usually only water. However, in fast places like here at the mall they brought us a jar of water and two Dixie-cup sized aluminum cups. And you don't pay at the table. You also don't tip.

Visual aids are extremely helpful when the menus are not in English.

Totally real but fake.

Bibimbap menu.

Korean fast food at the mall.

Not 100% sure but optimistic.

The result from mixing it all is a lot more appetizing and extremely delicious.

Now it's time to attack E-Mart

With some bibimbap in our stomachs, we headed back the escalators to E-Mart! E-Mart is like a Super Wal-Mart with a little bit of Target mixed in. One part has everything from housewares to hardware to school supplies and the other part has groceries. Imagine Target in Times Square (if there were a Target in Times Square) on a Saturday afternoon...that's exactly what this first E-Mart experience was like.

Now we weren't here for everything needed to set up an apartment or kitchen. We just needed to get things like small basic kitchen utensils, a few more place settings, an ironing board, hair dryer, etc....and then some basic groceries. Before arriving, I had made a trip to Sam's Wholesale back in Texas for any possible toiletries that we'd need because Western products are a little difficult to find here and if they are here, they're completely outrageously priced. So in addition to only 3 suitcases of clothes and shoes, I checked one large suitcase and one large duffel bag stuffed with everything from towels, deodorant, shampoo, toothbrushes, mouthwash, basic spices (including some Salt Lick Rub when we're missing that Texas bbq flavor) etc...and then when our stomachs need something from home? A 12 pack of Kraft Macaronni and Cheese....the blue box....THE BEST.

Everyone loves E-Mart!

The contraption in the basket is a clothes dryer.

Washer and dryers here are all in one unit and the dryer apparently takes forever
and uses lots of electricity, so most people let them air dry.
I haven't done laundry yet, but it should make for an interesting post
so stay tuned for pictures of the laundry drying rack in use!

Checking out in a store in Korea

You have to pay for your bags. Whether they're just plastic or an ecological, earth friendly bag that's reusable. We bought two reusable bags. And you have to bag everything yourself.

Grocery Shopping at E-Mart

Shopping for housewares was a little chaotic but nothing like what awaited us in the grocery department. We took the escalator up and check our full cart of housewares at the door and got a new cart and headed in!

For those of you reading who are from Texas, particularly Brenham, who grocery shop at H.E.B., E-Mart was like H.E.B. on Friday afternoon. Out...of...control.

Our trip resulted in a giant bag of garlic....not sure how much I will have to cook to use it all, but Koreans put garlic in everything so we will too!....a bag of apples, some broccoli, a bag of cucumbers, a couple of onions, olive oil, apple vinegar, sugar, box of cherry tomatoes, bag of beans sprouts, yogurt, pasta sauce, iceberg lettuce, couple of potatoes, a pineapple, and some chicken and beef....basic but perfect for quite a few meals...especially when accompanied by a box of Kraft Macaronni and Cheese. (Note: No blue boxes were to be found at E-Mart...good thing I brought a 12 pack).

Notice all of our purchases were fresh things that don't really come in packaging or basic ingredients that had illustrations on the label...this was a result of pretty much all of the products at E-Mart being Korean and us having no idea what the items were that were in the packaging. Perhaps we'll get more adventurous with each trip there.

Boxes of peaches.

We didn't have a good season of peaches in Texas....but looks like they certainly did here!
I'm not sure where the peaches actually came from, but I'm thinking somewhere outside of the country because they were $22 a box.

We'll get peaches from the fruit guy on the street corner at a slightly more reasonable price.

Note to self - No need to grocery shop on a Sunday again.
Unless it's like this every day...which is possible.

These fish were close to $300.

No that is not a typo...and I'm assuming they're not from the local river.

Again, not sure what makes them special but as soon as I find out I will let you know!

Fresh kimchi anyone? Anyone?

It was actually really delicious. Crunchy, little spicy, very very fresh.

Kimchi by the bushel!

And then there was the Spam isle.

There were actually multiple isles of Spam...Spam paired with free Spam containers, Spam 6-packs, Spam gift sets....Koreans LOVE Spam. In an attempt to understand why, I Googled around and found the following article from the Seattle Times. It might be time to celebrate and embrace Spam. Slowly.