A New Experience by Mary

On New Year's Eve, James and I decided to try something new and go to "Koreatown" in Dallas. Many of you, like us, have been to part of "Koreatown" by shopping at the awesome store Sam Moon. Sam Moon, however, is a pretty diverse shopping experience. It is a store that is owned by Koreans, but is popular with people of many ethnicities. The part of "Koreatown" that we visited is the opposite. We went to Komart, which is a market/restaurant. Right when we walked in, we noticed that we didn't see anyone who wasn't Asian. It was a pretty strange feeling, and I think at first we were both a little intimidated. We walked around and marveled at all of the unknown grocery products. Some of our favorites were: Wooly Booly apple flavored gum, Chew and Sing gum, honey powder, and shrimp chips. They also had a little area in the back where a lady was cutting up fresh eel and squid for customers.

There is also a small restaurant inside that serves popular Korean dishes. I really wanted to try something because I've never had Korean food. I kind of had to talk James into it, but he was soon glad that I did. I ordered bulgolgi (a kind of barbecued beef), and it came served on a interesting metal tray. It was also served with a broth, some sticky white rice, some marinated seeds/nuts of some kind, and kimchi (a very spicy, marinated cabbage that most Koreans eat at almost every meal as a side dish). It was surprisingly very good. James ate jin man du, which were some very yummy steamed dumplings.

This was a great experience for us to get a small sampling of Korean culture. We are excited to go back and try out other markets and restaurants in the area. We are lucky to live so close to such a large Korean population. I know that one day it will be fun to take our child there.