We made a trip to H-Mart, and I unintentionally ended up with a big grocery haul. Lol! Isn’t that how it always happens?

To me, H-Mart is like the Target of grocery stores. I go in with my short list, and I somehow always come out with a cart full of way more than I had planned.

Over the past few months, I’ve become increasingly interested in Japanese and Korean home cooking, especially the simple, everyday meals families prepare. So, I decided it was time to explore a few ingredients that were completely new to me.

Travis was able to help me pick out some of the products. He was stationed in South Korea for about a year, and he said he ate out at a lot of the restaurants (which he loved!). He even took a cooking class while he was living in Korea.

This trip, I picked up seaweed snacks, sesame oil, sushi rice, Japanese mayonnaise, and a few other items that caught my attention along the way.

Travis and I were using our phones to google which seaweed brands were good for making gimbap and sushi rolls. As we were trying very hard to determine which brand to get, a lovely Korean woman, who was also shopping in the store, overheard our conversation and walked up to us offering to help.

She was so sweet. She showed us which seaweed brands she uses to make gimbap. We smiled and thanked her profusely for her kindness. That helped us so much!

One of the things I enjoy most about cooking is learning something new. I love learning how to cook many different types of foods. I may not know exactly what I’m doing yet, but that’s part of the fun!

Every new ingredient, recipe, and kitchen experiment teaches me a little more than I knew the day before.

Here are some photos from our H-Mart grocery store haul.

Now the real adventure begins: figuring out what to make first! Do you enjoy learning how to cook different types of recipes?

💜 XO