G had the day off from school for Veteran's Day, so we drove down to Queens and had linner with my mother.  Afterwards, we went to a Korean supermarket.  As I was walking down the aisle, it occurred to me that most of you guys have probably never been in an Asian supermarket.  I thought I would make a "Korean Supermarket for Noobs 101" post.  So just to get your feet wet, walk in and consider purchasing some of these items:

If you've never been in a Korean supermarket before (the two biggest chains in the Northeast are Lotte (Assi) Plaza and HMart), you may not be a serious cook, so you would probably be most interested in quick meals - like the packaged noodles.  For some reason, Sapporo Ichiban is what people always get when they think of noodles.  It's oddly Mrs. Fly's favorite.  IMO, the best dry noodle out there is Neoguri.  It's a thicker noodle, with a spicy seafood broth.  I had one the other day and it was still awesome.

If you are too lazy to "cook," and "instant" noodles (where all you do is add hot water) are more your thing, try this.  It comes in a few different varieties, but the taste is SOOO much better than Cup O Noodles, or whatever that crap is that they sell in American supermarkets.  I made the mistake of buying a case at Costco last year, and I just couldn't *believe* how bad it was.  Fortunately, D liked it so I didn't have to throw it away.  And obviously, I'm not the only one who think the Nong Shim bowl noodles are good, since there's a seal from some chef association saying this is the best tasting.

Here is another quick meal - instant curry.  You just need to boil the pouch and pour it over some rice or pasta.  I haven't had it in a long time, but I remember it being pretty tasty.  It also comes in a black bean sauce flavor.  Yeah - you still have to make some rice or pasta, but I guess if you were super-lazy, you could pour it over some bread and eat it like a soup.  That wouldn't be my preference, but starch is starch.  If that concept is good enough for California Pizza Kitchen, why not you?

If I had to pick one more item for those too lazy to cook... it would probably be this roasted eel...  It's the "unagi" you get at sushi restaurants.  You just have to heat it up and eat it with rice.  If you love eel sushi, this will really hit the spot.  Otherwise, it'll just be another in the long list of things "those Krazy Koreans" are eating.

One relatively easy Korean meal is to make "our" famous barbeque short ribs.  The quality of short ribs at a Korean supermarket are far superior to those at an American supermarket.  All you need to to is get one of these packages of 1/4" thick sliced beef, marinade in your favorite teriyaki-based bottled marinade, and grill.  It's not that much more work than making your own burgers or whatever.

I took a lot more pictures, but I'm not sure if I'll do another post, unless there's some demand.  It's mostly of snack food.  I geared this post mostly for people who want quick meals, since I assumed people who cooked regularly knew about the various Asian ingredients.  The workers at the supermarket probably thought I was some kind of industrial spy from a rival supermarket, with all the photos I was taking.

BTW,

[x] fish