Korean Job Discussion Forums

[krats1976]

OK, I lived here before for four years. I KNOW I bought more than rice and tuna when I went grocery shopping, but I just can't remember what.

What do you buy for cooking at home?

Parameters of the discussion (cuz I'm the OP and I can):

* Don't tell me just to eat out or order in. A) I can't afford it, B) I'm not very close to many restaurants, C) see the next bullet

* I'm trying to go gluten free. That really limits me. I've found a wheat-free soy sauce, but I'm out of luck with a lot of things.

* Korean food is fine. Western food is fine. Any kind of food is fine...as long as it can be found in your average market.

[ttompatz]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

You can try ordering some gluten-free products from iherb.com if you like. Shipping's pretty cheap.

I do a lot of veggies, and eat guksu conyak (a strange starch that is shaped as noodles) instead of regular noodles in soups. I'm not on a gluten-free diet, but am trying to limit excess carbs from noodles.

I order cheese from nicemarket.net or get fancy stuff at the Shinsegae wine shop.

[krats1976]

Thanks ttompatz! Those are great suggestions.

[highstreet]

Broccoli
Korean Lettuce
Yellow, Green, Red Peppers

basically what I eat everyday + chicken breast/tofu

[Triban]

[WadRUG'naDoo]

Let's see... Kimchi, rice, gochujang, and ramyeon. What else does a person need?

[DaHu]

I've never bought rice or tuna, or anything that could be described as "Korean food".

[minos]

learn korean meats and hit the butcher's shop. I was afraid like most people, but it's surpisingly cheap and easy. Shop around.

[cincynate]

Why are you going gluten free? Gluten is not bad for you in any way unless you have a gluten alergy, which affects <1% of the population.. Save your money and buy things with gluten in them..

[krats1976]

[StudentInKorea]

These are the things I usually use at home, some things are obvious, but I'll list them anyway.

Soft Tortillas (Can be combined with almost any ingredients and you can keep them in the freezer for quite long)
Mushrooms
Onions
Sweet gochu/green pepper (much cheaper than sweet pepper, doesn't go bad as fast and is quite good after frying)
Unpeeled garlic (the peeled version will go bad fast, which makes the unpeeled version much cheaper)
Canned corn
Bacon
Ham
Egg
Milk
Butter
Kimchi (kimchi fried with rice is very easy and quite good, kimchi jjige is easy and good too)
Spices: Sesame seeds, oregano, salt, pepper, chilli powder
Oil: One type of cooking oil+sesame oil
Pasta
Instant Ramyeon (can be mixed in many fried dishes)
Instant Soba
Pasta sauce/Ketchup (Can be combined with pasta or tortillas in countless ways)
Frozen cheese ddeok (Lasts for ever since it's frozen, and it's quite good if you make ddakgalbi, or ramyeon)
Frozen mandu
Beer (HomePlus and EMart Trader's usually have some good quantity offers)
Yoghurt (Denmark Yoghurt is my preferred brand)
Cereal (Fruit and fiber from Homeplus)
Mixed nuts
Soy sauce (can be used in many dishes and marinades)
Mustard sauce
Frozen shrimps
Canned beans
Canned tomatoes

I am sure there are quite a few more I have forgot.

The above items are generally cheap and doesn't go bad too fast (equally important if you want to keep the cost down). I would like to add cheese and bread to the list, but I haven't found any which is particularly good or cheap.

Things like beef or chicken is usually something I would buy the same day or the day before and not something I would keep in my kitchen for long. But it's nice to have some basic items so you only have to buy the meat for today's dinner.

[Koreadays]

groceries

[krats1976]

[StudentInKorea]

I've found unpeeled garlic everywhere (EMart/Lotte Super etc). Maybe you didn't recognize it because they sell it with 20 cm of the stem attached to the root.

I'm think they usually use regular flour for making mandu, so I would guess you can't eat it if you're avoiding gluten. I didn't take gluten into account when I listen my groceries.