unbeknownst to me, in recent years asian-american youths had started calling the stretch of el camino real between santa clara and sunnyvale "k-town" or "korean town" as it has, as well as many south asian businesses, many korean businesses. heh, if harold and kumar go to white castle were a street instead of a movie, it would be el camino real! you can quote me on that! heh... anyway, el camino real has 3 major korean supermarkets and several little mom and pop grocery stores that are almost anachrostic. after all, in this day and age, the serious chef in search of asian ingredients doesn't look for the "oriental grocery" with the tiki tiki font sign, no! he/she goes to the asian supermarket!
hangook market (it's more accurately romanized as "hangook market" as opposed to "hankook market.") _is_ one of the cleaner of the three and the biggest. inside, you'll find a vast produce section, a wide variety of meats and fish, an awesome bakery (bbanggeubneun maeul [aka "baker's village"], which can also be found down el camino real at halford), a nice selection of banchan, and a nice selection of marinated meats. the frozen and packaged foods sections are great as well. i suppose those not as familiar with korean cooking might stick to those packaged foods and premade dishes.
that brings me to the next point: hangook market has a good "deli" area, that is a good place to get prepared food, more likely for lunch than dinner. come here and enjoy some some excellent kimbap (korean roll "sushi"), soondae (pork blood and rice sausage), dduhkbokki (spicy rice cakes... although i can make some better myself), etc. i'll say _this_ though, galleria market down the street also has a good "deli" area and decent bakery. the kimbap is better at hangook market though.
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