TO GRASP HOW significant Vancouver’s Korean communities are, look no farther than North Road and Lougheed Highway, where two of the largest Korean supermarkets, Han Nam and H-Mart, stand facing each other. Although both are on North Road, where the first wave of Korean immigrants settled in the early 1990s, municipal zoning puts Han Nam in Burnaby and H-Mart in Coquitlam, otherwise known by many as Koreatown. At these supermarkets, allow yourself time to browse the vegetable section for unfamiliar produce such as fresh Korean ginseng and the aisles of ready-to-eat pickles, cooked food, meats, seafood, Japanese ingredients and fresh Korean pastries. Soak up the smells of garlic and seafood, as you wander the aisles with local workers stopping in for lunch and home cooks and older couples doing their grocery shopping.
Although North Road still has an abundance of Korean shops and eateries, such as Insadong, which is always packed and offers a huge variety of Korean barbecue dishes and set dinners, and Wang Ga Ma Korean Restaurant, which is much smaller but serves homestyle beef dishes, many Korean restaurants have spread to Surrey and Langley. Local Koreans consider Buk Jang Do Ga on Fraser Highway their kitchen away from home when looking for comforting dishes such as mung bean cake. The recent opening of another H-Mart on the same road signals just how many Koreans are now living in the suburbs.
Although barbecue (gogi gui, bulgogi and other meats grilled over gas or charcoal) is still the most-ordered item in most Korean restaurants, other authentic and addictive dishes include soft and silky tofu soup (soon doo boo jigae), kimbap (Korean rice rolls served with kimchi), savoury pancakes and clear but very fragrant beef soups.