How to - Korean Grocery Shopping

All the friends who are interested in making Korean food told me that it's really difficult to buy "right" Korean ingredients. There are too many brands and too many kinds of spices. Of course they can't understand any Korean character.

Today, I will talk about some reliable brands and products I buy in USA.

Please check the logo images and Korean characters carefully.

I found some copycats from the market and if you can not read Korean, 

you can caught into their trap.

I will update the list often. Please check it once in a while.

Feel free to ask me when you have questions about this.

 1.Pulmuone 풀무원

This brand is the most reliable brand in Korea. 

They provide a lot different kind of organic products.

Tofu is really famous and half cooked products are also popular.

    

2. Sampyo 샘표

This brand makes the best Korean shoyu(soy sauce).

All house moms using this. They almost never use any preservatives and MSG.

However please double check the label. Sometimes product in USA is slightly different.

Korean shoyu is different from Japanese one. More rich and not sweet.

It is always easier when the sauce doesn't have sugar because

you can control the sugar all the time for your health.

 

3.Haechandul 해찬들

This brand if famous for all kind of Korean sauce.

Chili pepper paste(고추장) and soy bean paste(된장). 

When you find "국산" from the package,

it is really a good sign. It means ingredients from Korea.

especially chili pepper in USA taste totally different from Korean one.

For the pepper paste(고추장), I would recommend made from Korea product.

Do you know what this is? This is a mix of garlic and pepper paste and 

soy bean paste(쌈장). We eat it as a sauce for pork belly BBQ. 

Please do not confused with the soy bean paste.

 Nongshim(농심)

This brand is absolutely famous for their ramen noodle.

The most authentic Korean style instant ramen provider.

Ottugi(오뚜기)

This brand is famous for their retort curry(3min curry) and dry ingredients.

Also famous for their oil.(sesame oil). My mom is a really good cook and she always told me dried noodle(국수) and dried long rice(당면) is best of their product. When you make japchae(long rice noodle) and guksu(Korean noodle soup), please buy these items.

I use their sesame oil and seaweeds currently.

CJ / Jeil Jedang (씨제이/ 제일제당)

This company is a huge company which means reliable.

They make all kind of ingredients and the taste is guaranteed(kind of...)

 

BekSul(백설)
This brand was known for their sugar (the company name means "white snow").These days, their cooking mixes are all over the world. Korean pan cake mix(not sweet, salty. you can not make buttermilk pancake with this) and deep fry batter mix are really convenient. They Change their logo from 3 spoons to the red and white recently.

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These are what I have now.

I will update it soon!!!