As I indicated before in "Signs of Santa Clara", my town has a large concentration of Korean expatriates. For this reason, we have a number of Korean markets, where practically all of the signs are in Hangul, not English, and you may have difficulty being understood at the deli counter (usually another customer will translate for me).
My favorite one is the Kyo-Po Market, for which I have a one of their shopping club cards. It's like those issued by Safeway to track your expenses, except that the Kyo-Po card is a bit different. It is only worth flashing if you spend $30 or more, for then you get a discount, otherwise the cashiers will spurn your attempts to show them your card with a dismissive wave. Except in my case, when they will look a bit bewildered. Because as best I can tell, I'm the only non-Korean to be carrying one of these green cards in my wallet. All of the advertisements for them were written in Hangul.
DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT (R.I.P. Karl Malden)
KYO-PO MARKET
This is the original Kyo-Po on El Camino Real. It is rather cramped with merchandise, but not with customers any longer. They mostly prefer to shop at the new Super Kyo-Po on Homestead and Lawrence. This suits me and a few of the other old timers just fine. We don't have to wait long in line and the selection is essentially the same. The prices can sometimes be a bit less in the old store besides.
FRESH KIM-CHEE AND PICKLED GREENS
Kyo-Po sells a wide variety of Kim-Chees for those too lazy or unskilled to make it at home. The best varieties, apart from Charm, are those sold in unmarked glass jars or simple plastic bags, such as those shown here on the bottom left. If you do have the knack, or inclination, to make Kim-chee yourself, Kyo-Po has every possible ingredient in abundance.
THE VARIETY OF MISO PASTES
In "A Quick Clam Soup", I mentioned using miso paste along with hon-dashi as the basis of a soup stock. Here's where I get most of my miso. Koreans are loathe to admit it, but the Japanese have got the market cornered on quality for the most part.
I went to Kyo-Po today because, not having left myself enough time to make a proper meal, I decided to do "take out" -- by grabbing a few items off store shelves and supplementing them with a few things from my refrigerator. From the market, for tonight's "meal" I picked up the following.
- Cucumber kim-chee from the deli
- Natto, a Japanese fermented soy bean dish (a favorite)
- Fresh semi-soft tofu, in an unmarked container made locally this morning
From home, I added these.
- Sugar snap peas
- Blackberry smoothie picked up while mystery shopping a well known chain
- Coffee -- lots of coffee
So, that's one of the stores in my neighborhood which keeps me fed enough to blog. ;)
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