H-MART KOREAN SUPERMARKET Taste Test! BEST & WORST Korean Grocery Market Foods

Hi, happy Sunday morning and today it's Father's Day and I know my dad watching his every single video I make. Also, I think he comments down below using burner Google accounts. But anyway, thanks for all you do and hope you're eating something good today. I mean, I have no idea what it's like to have a kid. I mean, sometimes I have a food baby and even that's rough. So thanks dad for putting up with my shenanigans. So to you and to all the fathers out there, happy Father's Day. Well, be late at Father's Day now that, you know, by the time this video comes out. Anyway, speaking of food babies, last week I was going to my local Korean grocery store at H Mart and if you guys never been to a Korean supermarket, it is absolutely amazing. Back before this whole lockdown started in New York, I used to just go because they would always have some special food inside or a bunch of delicious banchan or noodles. The noodles coming out, great produce. So I figured today for food, I'm just gonna go to the local Korean supermarket. We'll see what kind of ready-to-eat food they have. We'll look through the frozen food section and just get a bunch of stuff to eat. This is like a whole entire little Korean shopping center. So things start from the outset. These are amazing. If you guys never had a Korean pear before, you need that in your life. Look how monstrous these are. These are so good. Oh, this is a little Korean food court that's not open right now. Oh, they got BBQ chicken. That place is so good. Whoa, okay, so they have a little body thermometer. Am I hot right now? I'm red. These are awesome. Rice cakes. These are so good stewed. They have spicy noodle kits. Stir-fry udon. Cold noodles with spicy broth. Cold noodles with radish broth. I love this. Love this. This is where you get the barbecue meats. Look at that marbling. This would be great on a grill. This is where you get all the hot pot meats. I do feel like the Korean grocery store hot pot meats are way more expensive than what you'll find in Chinese supermarkets. But I feel like their quality is better. Whoa, this is crazy. I've never seen this before. This is a Chinese thing, not a Korean thing. But I've never even seen these in Chinese supermarkets before. Spicy clam citron style? I'm trying these. Wow, this seafood section is so nice. Dried squid, dried shrimp, dried anchovies. Wow. So basically, they just sell you this whole thing, spicy cod soup, and you can just make this whole thing into a soup. There's sashimi sets. Sashimi octopus. Salmon. Everything is so fresh. Oh my gosh. Wow, that tuna looks good. This is one of my favorite sections. This is where all the kimchi's reside. These are some of the ready-made food. Oh, fish cakes. Fish cake stew. You can take home and just put that whole thing in a pot. I'll take one of these. So these are some of the hot items. Japchae? Yes, please. Fried mackerel. Heck yeah. Fried calamari. Oh, Korean fried chicken. This is so good. Boiled pig's feet. Korean pig's feet is one of the greatest things ever made. They don't do anything small. I mean, all these are for like multiple people. In this whole section here, this is all banchan. Koreans love their pork. This is great, too. We already have the pig's feet. Seasoned peanuts. Oh, this is good. You know what? I'll just get this little tray of four. Sundae blood sausage. Heck yes. Seasoned pepper. Yeah, why not? This Korean auntie definitely knows what she's doing. She's picking through the different containers of kimchi. For me, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Oh, and this is where you can get the freshly made gimbap. These rice cakes are amazing. Oh, these are gonna be so good. I'm gonna get these assorted ones. This is also one of my favorite sections. You get all these really cool, innovative electronics. The Korean auntie visors. Mandatory accessory when you start getting older. You can check out the latest in rice cooker technology. These are the cheaper rice cookers. I would definitely recommend investing in a good rice cooker. Or Instant Pot. I really love Instant Pots now. You should always get yourself a burner stove so you can have barbecue outside or a hot pot outside. 100% need a grill for your Korean barbecue needs. Oh, hey, look. This is where I got Big Bertha. I'm finally able to tell you guys the brand. It's Haemaru Electronic Frying Pan. Made in Korea. Model number HM9100P. This one. I love it. So good. Oh my god. Pickled garlic. You guys got to incorporate pickled garlic into every single dish you eat. Also, if you guys never had a milkus before, you need to get a milkus. All right, it doesn't matter which milkus you get. You gotta get a milkus. I personally like banana milkus. Oh, this is so good. Black garlic. This is amazing. Wow. Dumpling section. This is all dumplings. And then this is all dumplings here. All right, we'll have to come back and just do one full episode on dumplings. Oh my god. This is, this is, oh, so good. You know what? I'm excited when my voice changes tones, but look at all. That beautiful color. And of course, the instant noodle section is insane as well. Oh my, seriously. I did not realize there was so, look, this is still dumplings. This whole entire island right here. Sweet veggie dumplings. Flavors I've never even heard of. Big gyoza. Those are my favorite type of gyoza. Spicy vegetable dumplings. Kimchi dumplings. Oh my goodness. Oh, wow. Holy bejesus. This is all dumplings too. Well, those are Chinese dumplings, but mainly these are Korean dumplings. Wait, what? Oh, they have, this is a fire ramen dumplings. Oh my god. They got the fried, fried rice. Oh, we gotta try this. Hot chicken flavor fried rice. Carbonara. Look at all the noodles they have in here too. More dumplings. Right besides the ice cream. By the way, one of my favorite Korean ice cream. This right here. Oh my god. Korean corn dogs. Oh, these are the best Korean cheesy dogs. Oh, shower. Make it rain. Korean corn dogs, my man. This dude is just making it rain. All right, I gotta get out of here. My breakfast is getting a little out of hand. Look at all the chili sauce. This is the official Korean instant noodle aisle. Yeah, we'll be back for this. Whole video just for you. I'll be back. Wait for me. Well, I don't know about you guys, but that was so fun for me. I think that's my new happy place. I don't go to Korean supermarkets as often as I go to Chinese supermarkets, but wow, there's so much stuff I want to eat in there. If I ever went like a, like a shopping spree anywhere, I wanted to be here. I don't even care. I'll load up on them pig trotters. All right, H Mart. Be back for them dumplings. All right, I got my food laid out in front of me. I got some more in the fridge. I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. So total, I think I'm gonna eat about 20 different items today. I'm so excited, especially for the pickled garlic and the kimchi. It looked all spicy and the chili peppers. I legit don't even know where I should start. Um, I'm gonna make the fish cake stew. Let's just get something nice and hearty in my belly. So this one is pretty simple. You just put all the ingredients in. It doesn't really tell you how much water you need, but there's some mushrooms, a lot of radish, which is very typical in Korean fish cake stew. Oh, this smells so alluring. A couple different fish cakes, radish, udon noodles, spring onions. Oh, that's so good. I love that slightly sweet fish cake flavor. Onions are perfect. Radish is on point. This is one of those dishes I miss so, so much and it's something I always get whenever I'm back in South Korea. Just jam-packed. Chewy, spongy. Oh, I miss it so much, especially when I was in Busan. I had the spicy version of this. It just warms your soul up, you know? That's what I'm gonna do here. Oh, I didn't buy any of the Korean chilies, which I should have, so only thing I have, I guess, quote-unquote, unfortunately, is my hot oil. So just add a tiny bit of that. Just a hint. Swish it all around. Oh, that's better. Not exactly the same spice, but oh, that delicious fish cake flavor. With that added kick, if you've never had your soul warmed up before, take a sip of this. This is just one of the most perfect things for a chilly, rainy Sunday. Udon is so good, too. They don't actually tell you on the package how much water to add. I think I added about six cups of water, and to me that was the perfect amount. And in China, we always eat noodles with pickled garlic. Always. Oh, yeah, that is so good. Bite of pickled garlic. Slurp a noodle. If this does not bring a smile to your food-loving face, I don't know. I think you might be broken. I would highly, highly recommend this. This pack of udon and vegetables and fish cakes. This is as close to Korean street comfort food as you're gonna get. Oh, I love those chilies. Perfect amount of spiciness. Also, I love it when it's not just spicy, it's also vinegary and a great crunchy texture to kind of contrast the soft, chewy fish cake. Oh, man, seriously, this is exactly what a chilly, rainy day calls for. Piping hot, spicy noodles. Chewy, satisfying fish cakes. Pickled chilies, some pickled garlic. Don't forget about the kimchi. You got all sorts of textures, heat, flavor. And that great umaminess that just soaked into this broth. I mean, it may look scary, but this is like the Asian parents of noodle soup. It may hurt you, but in a good way. I want to try this gimbap. You see, I'm making it fresh. No dipping sauce, though. I'm just gonna make myself a little dipping sauce. A little vinegar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil. And I don't have any wasabi. I do have some wasabi oil. I'm gonna add a tiny bit of this to it to add some what Chinese people call chong, which is kind of like a feeling where the spice hits your nose. We love that. The inside is good. You get that delicious sesame flavor, the great crunch from the veggies. But I feel like a lot of that is just being drowned out by the thick layer of rice surrounding this thing. You know what I'm gonna do? Take my fish cake broth. I'm just gonna go ahead and dunk this in here. See what happens. When you're eating, having a good time, try things out. All right, that didn't quite work out. The flavor profile didn't really mesh. That's okay, though. Again, all I really taste is the rice. So this is okay. If you're dying for some gimbap, you need that craving satisfied. This will satisfy it, but it won't satisfy in a really nice enjoyable way. This I've been looking forward to. Blood sausage is one of my favorite classic Korean dishes. By the way, this is the dipping sauce. I got blood sausage. I got a little pig ear, which is one of my favorite porky things to eat. See that in the middle? Crunchy little cartilage. I've been eating this since I was a kid. That's why I got great hearing. This is really good. Salt, chili, a little sesame. The texture of the pig ear is so nice. Such a simplistic dish. Boiled pig parts, just dunking a little bit of salt and chili. This is really all you need. And a lot of classic Korean dishes are so simple, but the flavor is just so magnificent. Like the fish cake broth, the flavor is predominantly just soy sauce. But with all the ingredients combined, it's such a flavorful profile. Liver. I love all sorts of liver. Chicken liver, pig liver. If you guys never had sundae before, it's Korean blood sausage. I feel like all Asians are a little vampire-y. Every single Asian country you go to, there's an obsession with blood. Maybe we are all part vampires. I mean, if you look at East Asians, we hate the sun. We're all really pale. We love blood. And every time we encounter a racist, they scream something about bats. But anyway, I know there's a lot of things on this plate that you might not be into that may seem a little exotic. But I do really want to encourage everybody, if you're going to an Asian supermarket or any supermarket you're not familiar with that has a lot of new foods, give it a try. Like, step out of your comfort zone. Be positive and liver a little. All right, next thing I'm trying, one of my favorite markets in South Korea, the Nandaemun Market. I love the pig trotters they sell. You're just walking along the street, and so many vendors are selling these pig trotters, and they're so delicious. Again, this might be something that you're not familiar with. I mean, a lot of people have been to dim sum, which has a lot of chicken feet, and that might be the only, like, feet thing that a lot of you guys are familiar with food-wise, and these might look really intimidating with all the skin and bones here, but this guy's so much flavor. It's in here. You know why? It's because when the pig is walking, all that flavor is just shifted down to its feet. All right, I made that up, but trust me, this, oh, there's so much beauty that is this. Ooh. Texture is good, but someone forgot to add the salt. It's, like, bland. No flavor. What happened here? Maybe this pig was upside down his whole life. I guess that's why they gave me the dipping sauce for this. Okay. Much, much better. Do not try to eat this without the dipping sauce, and this thing is really just braised in some soy sauce and different spices. The flavor is so deep. It's one of those dishes where the more you chew, the more xiang, the more fragrant this thing gets, because it's got so much fat on here. So when you're chewing, the fat renders, so it's kind of hitting your taste buds wave by wave by wave, and it just keeps getting tastier, more flavorful. You can say I have a foot fetish. You wouldn't be wrong. This is one of my favorite Korean dishes, japchae. All right, this is quite a lot. It's good. A lot of great sesame flavor. It is just good. It's not the best I've had. The dried squid is delicious. This is a really fun little punch on plate. This is okay japchae. It's not the best one I've had, but it'll satisfy those cravings. I got some Korean fried chicken that looks amazing, and I got some fried mackerel. Mackerel fish in Korea, especially the one I had in Jeju, is the best I ever had in my life. Jeju Island, if you guys ever go to South Korea, if you want some of the best seafood, especially the best abalone, the best mackerel, go eat it in Jeju. Trust me. It's a life-changing experience. But I'm gonna heat this up, and the best way to do this is probably with my air fryer over there. Absolutely obsessed with this air fryer. Spray this down. These are ginormous wings, too. And while we're waiting for that to cook, let's make a yakult soda. It's one of my favorite things to make whenever I see yakult and sparkling water. Really simple. Add some sparkling water, and you can adjust the sweetness to it. The yogurt-y flavor I love, and the bubbles to make it fun. Give it a little mix. Ah, delicious. Mmm, that's a home run. 100% recommend getting the mackerel. Juicy and delicious. Wow, and the air fryer, great way to go. Makes the outside nice and toasty. It traps all that great juice and moisture of the fish. One of the best things I had today. This is the Korean fried chicken. This is a big sucker. These are like pterodactyl wings. These are really good. I think I should have fried these longer. They're still not crispy outside. Oh, but the flavor is there. Sweet, spicy, juicy wing, with just a subtle aroma from the sesame. If you can make these really crispy, this will be really good. But god, this mackerel. And the fish cake stew. Save, save. It's okay. Pikachu, you okay? Yeah, you're good. This thing, the fish cake stew, the garlic, the pickled peppers. Oh, and the sundae. Best thing I got so far from H1. All right, I want to try this. This is the fire hot chicken flavor fried rice. So basically fire fried rice. And I'm really hoping this is not false advertisement. And I actually will look like this guy after I take a few bites. Because although he's crying, he looks happy. All right, so when you open it. Whoa, okay. There's two pouches of this fried rice. Definitely looks like it's on fire. This is the reddest fried rice I've ever seen. Before even taking a single bite. This smells exactly like that ramen. If you put this in front of my nose, and you ask me to identify it. I would not say rice. I would say, yeah, it's that ramen. I like it. Whoa, I feel like this burns more than those noodles. I don't know why. Eat that with a little bit of my, uh, mackerel. Personally, I'm a fan of the noodles. I think this is fun and delicious. You definitely need some protein to go with this though. I think eating this alone will be a little too much. But dice up a little hot dog, grab a piece of fish, whatever you want. Just to change the texture up a little bit. I would get this again. This is the spicy clam citron style. Personally, I'm a little, a little afraid of eating clams that are frozen. This is pretty delicious. I mean the clam, obviously they taste like frozen clams, but the sauce is fantastic. Oh, a little sandy. Oh my god. Yeah, so much sand in that one. But most of these are pretty good. The sauce, it tastes like a hot pot sauce. They might have just taken like hot pot broth seasoning and put it into the clams. I mean the flavor is fantastic. It's spicy. It's nummy. It's flavorful. If you don't bite into the clams that have a lot of sand in them, it's actually pretty good. All right, last thing we're eating. Korean cold noodles. This is something I am obsessed with. I love Korean cold noodles, especially in summer time. So there's two orders in here. Ah, this is so good. The only thing I wish I had was some ice cubes to make this even colder. Oh delicious. Radish broth is my favorite. Such a crisp, clean, refreshing tasting broth. Especially when you add the mustard sauce. I'm just gonna add a tiny splash of wasabi oil on this as well to make it even more chong, you know? This thing on a hot summer's day. Especially with some Korean barbecue. That would be like the fairy tale ending of foods. The reason I love this so much is because the wheat noodles, there's a bunch of starch in them. So they're so elastic-y and chewy. The whole thing is great with any type of greasy meat because it kind of counteracts that. It acts like the kimchi of noodle soups, you know? It provides that great vinegary, refreshing balance that you really need sometimes when you're eating greasy meats. So for me, buy the Korean fried chicken. Chase it with the noodles. These little mochi balls, the Korean rice cake. You gotta get these whenever you go to a Korean supermarket. They make them fresh. Oh my god. Little mochi ball with some sweet syrup and sesame inside. 100%. Gotta get this. So in summary, best thing today. Mackerel, little sweet mochi dumplings, sweet rice cakes, the cold noodle I got. Splendid. Fish cakes too. Blew my mind. The kimchi, the pickled peppers, basically all the banchan. Oh, especially this pickled garlic. You know, I am 8.4% Korean. So I don't know if it's because of that or whatever it is. This is stuff that I absolutely crave and to be able to bring a lot of it home and to eat it. But so much of the stuff will last a while. I mean, the pig trotters will last a little bit. The pickled vegetables, obviously. If I could just use one word to describe Korean food, I would say it's just comforting. So much of it. It's satisfying. It's comforting. It's homey. It makes you feel good. And there's like, there's like a food for every occasion. You know, it's cold and rainy. Eat some hot pot. When it's hot and humid, have some cold noodles. And the foods really complement each other. You got something greasy, eat it with some banchan. And this is actually the first time I've ever went to a Korean supermarket like H-Mart and just got a bunch of food and ate it. Oh, also some of the foods that didn't taste so good. The gimbap wasn't great. Too much rice. All you really taste is the rice. The japchae, it was all right. Nothing special about it. Most of the food, pretty darn amazing. All right, that's it for this Korean supermarket food review. But next time guys, we're hitting that dumpling section hard. All right, guys, as always, thank you all so much for watching. Until we eat again, a few moments later. One thing I forgot about, in case you guys never had this before, you've got to try this ice cream. I've been eating this for years. It's a fish ice cream. Fish wafer on the outside and different ice cream and fillings inside. This one I got matcha ice cream with sweet red bean filling. And I like this because you can get all close and intimate with the fish. Whoa, whoa. Matcha ice cream and a little bit of red bean sauce too. What I like about this is that no matter what kind of fish you get from this brand, it'll never be a catfish. I'm sorry. I think I need to go to bed. No, seriously. Bye-bye.