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Shopping at Jagalchi isn’t a casual excursion – the lines are long, the crowds are huge and the square footage can be overwhelming, especially for those not well-versed in Korean cooking.
The 75,000-square-foot Korean food complex opened with much anticipation March 28 in Daly City’s Serramonte Center. Jagalchi is owned by international Korean supermarket chain Mega Mart, which has Bay Area locations in Sunnyvale and Fremont. Inside, shoppers do laps around the central restaurant Pogu, perusing snack aisles, a butcher section, a seafood market with an oyster bar, a bakery, a produce section, Korean pantry staples and a ready-made and freshly prepared food section.
With so much to explore, I asked chef Michael Kim – previously of the former Michelin-starred Palo Alto restaurant Maum – to come with me and give his opinions on how Jagalchi compares to nearby Korean supermarkets and stores in Korea, as well as what products he personally would pick up.
Kim and his wife Meichih Kim are opening a Menlo Park restaurant called Yeobo, Darling next month. His new upscale casual restaurant will highlight his Korean roots and his wife’s Taiwanese heritage. Kim and I spent almost two hours looking around Jagalchi and discussing the various food and drink products.
Shoppers look at the meat selection at the new Jagalchi food complex in Daly City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Grocery shoppers maker their way through the new Jagalchi food complex in Daly City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Customers go in and out of the new Jagalchi food complex in Daly City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Customers dine at POGU, a sit-down restaurant inside the new Jagalchi food complex in Daly City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
On a Tuesday afternoon, I figured prospective shoppers would be at work or school. I assumed incorrectly: I waited in a 10-minute line to enter Jagalchi, and once inside, it was clear much of the stock had been completely wiped and it was difficult not to accidentally bump into other people.
Snacks
We started in the snacks and frozen foods section, located on the left when entering Jagalchi through the mall. Snack culture is big in Korea, Kim said, with common snack flavors including milk, seaweed, pizza and fried chicken. One popular subset of snacking in Korea is almonds, Kim noted, pointing out a pack of HBAF hot and spicy chicken flavored almonds ($4.50).
“We were just in Korea in January, and there was this big store that was dedicated to flavored almonds…it’s a very big touristy thing where people take it back for souvenirs and gifts for their families,” he said.
A must-have snack is Haitai Matdongsan ($3.50), a crispy, crunchy and slightly sweet cracker snack made with peanuts, according to Kim. It’s one of his dad’s favorites and a staple he grew up with.
Another snack Kim pointed out was the HT honey butter chips ($3), which “were really, really popular maybe five, six years ago,” Kim said. Chip trends come and go, he noted, with Turtle Chips – a variety of corn chips with many flavors – especially popular now.
Teas
Acclaimed Korean chef Michael Kim checks out Osulloc green tea powder at the new Jagalchi food complex in Daly City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Acclaimed Korean chef Michael Kim checks out Osulloc sejak tea at the new Jagalchi food complex in Daly City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Osulloc green tea powder at the new Jagalchi food complex in Daly City. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Kim was excited to see that Jagalchi carried Osulloc, a tea brand from Jeju Island that he usually brings back from Korea to gift to his friends. While it’s available in a variety of flavors, including camellia, tangerine and cherry blossom, he usually gravitates toward green tea, having enjoyed both the green tea powder ($12) and sejak tea ($17).
“I haven’t really seen it here in the States, but obviously it is more expensive than it is in Korea, which is to be expected, but I think it’s reasonable,” he said.
Another tea Kim thought was interesting was Jagalchi’s brand of Jerusalem artichoke tea ($5.50), a type of tea commonly found in Korea that tastes somewhat like burdock tea, he said.
“This one’s really good,” Kim said. “It has a really earthy taste. (Korea has) a big noncaffeinated tea culture for health.”
Alcohol
One section of Jagalchi that Kim was particularly impressed with was the alcohol section, which he said had “a nice array of traditional sool,” a Korean word for various alcohols including soju and rice wines.
Out of the makgeollis, a subcategory of rice wine, Kim was most interested in the Red Monkey ($18), a 10.8% ABV makgeolli colored with red rice yeast.
“This is something that I don’t really see much often,” he said. “It’s my first time seeing it in the markets in the States.”
Other notable sool include the Solsongju ($24), a 13% ABV pine-flavored soju Kim recommends pairing with eel dishes; Pungjeong Sagye ($36), a 42% ABV soju; Won Mae plum liqueur ($17.50), a 13% ABV liqueur made with Korean golden plum; and Tokki soju ($22-$27.50), a Brooklyn-based soju brand.
Kim ultimately decided to add Seoul Night soju ($17.50), a 25% ABV soju with floral plum flavors, to his basket.
“We need to recipe test for our bar program (at Yeobo, Darling),” he said. “I’ve tried this one before, and it’s somewhat neutral, and it’s slightly aromatic, so I think it’ll mix well with the cocktails.”
Seafood and seaweed
While Kim thought the butcher section and the fresh fish section were comparable to other Asian markets in the area, he was particularly interested in the selection of dried fish, which featured anchovies of different sizes.
“If you go to the open air markets in Korea, there’s a dried fish dealer that deals with all these kinds of things all in one stall, like all these seaweeds, kelps, anchovies,” Kim said. “It’s pretty cool to see this. This kind of stuff is exciting.”
The larger anchovies typically are used to make stock, and the smaller anchovies are usually fried, seasoned with soy sauce and sugar and eaten as a side dish.
Located near the dried fish was a selection of dried roasted seaweed ($20). Kim was so excited about it that he took a pack home with him.
“These specialty seaweeds are the kind of things that you don’t find normally in your normal Korean market,” he said. “It’s a little bit thicker, it’s a little bit more textured, it’s less manipulated.”
He recommends rubbing the seaweed with sesame or canola oil, pan frying it with a bit of salt and eating it with a meal, or pureeing it with sesame oil and vinegar to make a seaweed sauce.
“These are the things that’s the foundation of food,” he said. “Stock making, these kinds of things, that’s what excites me. Not all the flashy chips and all that, but it’s more of the natural products.”
Bakery and dessert
We briefly stopped in the bakery, Basquia, which specializes in baked goods made with rice flour, particularly sulpang, a soft Korean bread. Every baked good was sold out, save for the injeolmi custard muffins and the roll cakes, so there wasn’t much for Kim to talk about.
Over in the dessert section, Kim took particular interest in the udo-peanut chaltteok pie ($5), which he added to his basket.
“I’ve never seen it,” he said. “I really like chaltteok – this is kind of like mochi. I really like that texture. That chewy, mushy texture.”
When asked if Yeobo, Darling will have chaltteok on the dessert menu, he said his restaurant will have “different versions of (chaltteok), especially in the savory portion.”
Produce
The product that stood out most to Kim in the produce section was the Jeju oranges, which came in boxes with nine pieces ($24.50) and two pieces ($5.50).
“These are famous citrus,” he said. “They’re equivalent to a sumo tangerine, but it’s very prevalent, especially during the winter time in Jeju. They’re really known for that. I haven’t seen this here, which is cool.”
He added the two-piece box, another two-piece box of a different orange variety – labeled Cheon-Hye-Hyang ($4.50) – and a pair of Korean pears ($2.50 a pound) to his basket.
Jangs
By far, the product Kim spent the majority of his time looking at was artisanal jangs ($9-$10), fermented sauces that are “the foundations of Korean cuisine,” Kim said.
Kim hadn’t seen this brand, labeled Sunchang Moon Okrye, of jangs before, but he added a jar of doenjang (soybean paste) to his basket.
Big picture
Overall, Jagalchi has a better selection of artisanal products than other nearby Korean markets, particularly in the jang, alcohol and dried fish sections, Kim said. Compared to markets in Korea, he thinks Jagalchi is similar to a mid- to higher-end market, like the equivalent of Whole Foods.
Jagalchi, 63 Serramonte Center, Daly City; Instagram: @jagalchi_official. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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