Quality Source: The Asian Market

Walking in to an ethnic market or grocery can be intimidating.  Often times the first language you hear spoken will not be English and reading signs or packaging can be impossible for the monolingual.  In my experience though these places are hidden gems and more often than not the staff is incredibly helpful in explaining what items are used for and pointing out things that are worth trying.

LJ and I were feeling adventorus one weekend so we decided to check out the Arirang Oriental Market and we were not disappointed.  It was all a little overwhelming and we wandered up and down all the aisles a number of times looking for things that caught our fancy.  I was specifically looking for rice seasoning (see below) but couldn't pass up the bag of extra course sea salt.  It has been excellent for using in cookies and I can't wait to try it on salt bagels.  LJ found a packet of our favorite curry mix at an excellent price and we picked up a couple of cans of coconut milk for popsicle season.

I was looking for rice seasoning, which I didn't even know what it was called before I found it.  In college a group of students from Japan made rice balls one evening and sprinkled a seaweed flake mixture on them before we devoured each ball.  I do enjoy rice so I figured this would be a good way to spice it up.  The market had easily 20 different varieties of rice seasoning and after at least 10 minutes of contemplating my choices I settled on the simplest choice which contains sesame seeds and seaweed.

I'm looking forward to making a return trip to pick up seasoning options for my first attempt at kimchi.