Gaki N Me If you love to talk about the world, love Asian idols, this is the place.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe what happened this weekend.  My husband took me to a newly opened supermarket 8 minutes by car from our house and it's a Korean supermarket!!!

I was like, yeow!!!!!  The store opened on Friday and it's over 150,000 square feet, two thirds the size of a normal Costco over here. And I could not believe my eyes!  Everything, everything is just about Korean or Japanese!!! I must have become like a little girl, dragging my little kids from booths to booths and aisles to aisles and my husband has to calm me down.

Not only do they carry all the Chinese vegetables, but also all the varieties of mushrooms, American varieties that we were used to in California. This could have been a Monterey market magnified 10 times.  Just tofu alone, it has 20 brands and types...Oh mama mia!! I was lost for words.  Not true!!! I was screaming....look at this, look at this!!!

Then when we neared the seafood department, there's dry provisions and fresh ones and frozen products...The dried squids were two and a half feet long and looked so much cleaner and fleshier than the Chinese provisions....faint, faint, faint....  The snow crabs and the tiger prawns were huge and sweet at the demo booths.

And there were cockles each the size of which I could just manage to wrap totally with my fist at US$2.99 a pound.  My brain was whirling when I saw the raw fish and the sushi chef making it to your order....and the over 20 types of picked vegetables that we got to sample. The kimchee selections have bare minimals because all the Koreans bought them all up.

My kids looked at the prices of the snacks and could not believe that the bulk packs looked tastier and cheaper than those they could find in Costco, American and Chinese supermarkets.  

And for the most needed item of the day, sesame oil....yaoh!!! There are Korean ones, Japanese ones and one Taiwan variety.  We saw the label on one black sesame oil with GET ONE FREE. Not knowing Korean, I took the bottle around to ask Korean natives if it meant buy one now and get one later free. The first couple was not Korean...hahaha....the second couple have poor eyesight....I was laughing so hard inside at my desperation to know everything about this black sesame oil. Then a young Korean teenager and her father helped but all it said was black sesame oil. My daughter on seeing on how intent on I was to know every label in this store said, "I'm going to learn Korean this summer."

While my husband went in search of vermincelli, we passed by a demo booth of potstickers and this young guy who called out loudly in Korean and English, "Try our potstickers!" was the younger version of Tadanobu Asano with facial hair.  I laughed so much as we watched from afar how enthusiastic he was.  After the hungry passersby tasted the half piece of potsticker, he would laden their cart with one or two bags.  We ran and made sure my husband didn't push the cart near him or try it.  We did not feel like buying potstickers today.

For the rest of the visit, my youngest kept a look out at how many passersby had been victimized...hahaha....

Then of course, as we neared the checkout, when I saw an electronics section with a Lee Jung Gi poster just plainly stuck on with tape at waist level, the bells in my head rang.  Jang Dong Gun!!! Do they have Jang Dong Gun?????

I ran and asked almost panting, my dear hubby, if he has seen a video section yet.  Lo and behold, there was one!!!! Faint faint faint.  My two boys and I marched...or ...actually....half ran over there....I scanned the 20 or so posters all across the wall....where's Jang Dong Gun????

The shopkeeper smiled when I asked if they had English subtitled videos or movies...they had only three series. It doesn't matter.  Do you have Jang Dong Gun poster? For Typhoon! Can I order one? Please!!! Please!! Just order more stock and sell me one please!

She must have thought I was a starstruck foreigner.  I am. And my kids knew not to say a peep about my plea.  I walked past one more time the Lee Jung Gi poster at hip level.  If they ever put Jang Dong Gun's poster there in clear view, it would be a goner the next time I visit, and I would make sure I wear a big jacket.  Ah....no...I can't teach my kids to steal.  I'll offer them $20 for it or more....but I need to take a Jang Dong Gun poster home.

   

Sigh...at checkout, at least I am appeased by the piped over music of Lee Soo Young and more that I recognize.  I know I will be back very soon if not to buy Japanese sesame oil, to at least spot the Jang Dong Gun poster.

And when we got home and I put away our purchases, I am very happy to say that finally, I could boycott Chinese goods even in our food purchases all the way right down to soya sauce and vermicelli and buy only Korean and Japanese goods.

Go stuff it, China.