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[charlieDD]

If you're looking for pretty good breads or cheese, the supermarket in Samsung Plaza at SeoHyeon station have some.

The cheese section carries a good brand from New Zealand that I like. It is the Kapiti brand and I like the aged cheddar. 170 gram of it (enclosed in black wax) is KW11,000. Go to the far corner to where the wines are to find this special cheese section; not the regular dairy section. They've got pretty good related meats there too. Have Hormel reduced salt bacon in the refrigerator just opposite the cheese, if you're into that.

The breads are in the other corner in the Shilla Bakery. My favorite is the one called "Cereal Bread". They make two with this name: one is taller and usually sits below the window where you can see them preparing bread and cakes and stuff before they are taken out to the shelves. The better one is not as tall and more compact; it's to the left of the window on a table that has various types of specialty breads, including ones with nuts and fruits, which are quite good, too. They have good brownies, muffins and such there as well. Have a "No Sugar" white bread, often available unsliced. Good basic bread. (Shilla Bakery is the one that got started in the Hotel Shilla, one of Korea's poshest international hotels, owned by Samsung Group.)

I shop Samsung Plaza regularly. Yes, they are more expensive, but there are certain things you can get there that you can't get at most other supermarkets. I get these things and leave the common stuff to Lotte Mart. Their fruits are a lot better, definitely, than Lotte Mart or E-Mart, but can cost more. (How about DURIAN from Thailand: it'll put you out KW90,000 for a whole one, when you can get a whole one in Thailand for about a buck!) (If you're into Durian, there's an Indian shop in Itaewon that sells a smaller whole one for around KW17,000).