Tag Archive for sunnybank at My Korean Kitchen

I did some Korean ingredient hunting yesterday in the Sunnybank area, where lots of Asian immigrants live. It is not where I live nor close to where I live. I like to get ingredients there because I used to live close to Sunnybank in the past. I used to shop there most of the time and there are lots of free car parks available compared to the Valley area.

I only visited two Korean grocery shops, one is called Kim’s market and the other one is called Kimchi store.

Kim’s market is fairly big and well organized with a larger variety of Korean ingredients than Kimchi store. However some items such as Gochujang, Kimchi etc in Kimchi store are slightly cheaper than Kim’s market.

Here are some good things and some bad things I found about getting Korean ingredients:

Korean Ingredients Finds in Brisbane 2

Yay~!

I found some fresh rice cakes, with which I can make yummy ddeokbokki. I believe fresh rice cakes make 10 times better ddeokbokki. Also even better! They are cheaper than in Korea.

Yay? or Nay?

My Korean grocery shopping time is very shortened. I don’t need to hesitate anymore to choose a product. They only have one brand per item. If they have two, then I am lucky.
Enoki mushrooms, Shiitake mushrooms, King oyster mushrooms are available but those are 4 to 9 times more expensive than Korea, depending on the species. Should I just be happy about that? At least I know that if I really want them I can get them.

Nay~!

Both shops sell fish cakes and crab sticks but they were frozen. I’ve never bought frozen fish cakes nor crab sticks in Korea. Have you ever bought frozen crab sticks or fish cakes? I don’t think they are supposed to be frozen. What do you think? Whether they were frozen or not, there were no traces of expiry dates on either item. So I decided to not to buy them unless they show me the expiry date.
I haven’t seen any perilla leaves (aka sesame leaves) yet. However Kimchi store even had a label “Precious perilla leaves available” in the fridge, but there weren’t any actual product in it. I asked a lady at Kim’s market if she sells them and she said it is hard to get nowadays because it is out of season. Whaaat? I got them all year around in Korea! I guess the farmer must grow them in an open field not a green house.

With a big disappointment, I came home and made this Dakgalbi. I didn’t have many ingredients so it was really simple but good enough to make me feel comforted.

Korean Ingredients Finds in Brisbane 1