Life
For Korean kimchi Nanhu Zonghe gets full complement
By Grace Su (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-05 16:10
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 Li Shun-Nv of Yi Ma Xiao Cai has more than 20 pickled kimchi items. |
Those so accustomed to living in China that retail prices actually begin to feel like retail prices can take heart: Beijing and its environs have a bounty of markets proffering almost any food items at wholesale prices.
In the capital's northeast (500 m north of the Nanhu South Road intersection in Wangjing), the Nanhu Zonghe market hawks vegetables, clothing, and most relevantly, everything you need to make Korean dishes.
From ready-made pickled goods such as kimchi to imported canned pear drinks, the market sells local and imported items at prices lower than many supermarkets.
For example, while the Korean brand Haitai canned pear drink normally sells for 4 to 5 yuan in local supermarkets, it costs only 3.5 yuan per box of 12 at stall No 41 in the Nanhu Zonghe market.
Additionally, while it would be a rarity to find Al jige, a type of fish egg soup, at a Korean restaurant in Beijing, several of the market's shop owners carry marinated fish eggs imported from Korea (100 yuan per 500 g).
However, not all of the shops serving ready-to-eat kimchi items are created equal.
While some shops keep their goods in old-looking plastic bins out in the open air, the cleanest and most tidy one is Yi Ma Xiao Cai (stall No 19).
Open from 8 am to 6:30 pm daily, Yi Ma Xiao Cai makes more than 20 pickled and kimchi items (even marinated raw crab), and keeps them in glass casserole trays enclosed in clean see-through refrigerators.
The owner is from Seoul (employees declined to provide his name) while workers are from different parts of Chaoxian, an area of China where most residents share the same dialect and/or language as Koreans. 
Li Shun-Nv, an employee of Yi Ma Xiao Cai, has been working at the 10-year-old shop for more than eight years now. The shop, vends the freshest-looking kimchi (7 yuan per 500 g), marinated raw squid (50 yuan per 500 g), and other ready-to-eat items imported from Korea.
Away from the foodstuffs area, customers can find cast-iron black pots (35 yuan each) with which to make Korean soup, as well as seasonings.
Cui Lian Hua's shop, No 17, specializes in Korean food seasonings. Cui is from the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, an area in China's northeast.
Cui, who has run her shop for more than 10 years, can speak the Chaoxian dialect and Korean. Her shops makes its own sesame oil.
Using a special pressing machine, Cui takes 30 minutes to first stir-fry the sesame seeds and another 10 minutes operating the machine to crush the seeds into oil.
In 45 minutes she can make 2500 g of sesame oil costing 28 yuan per 500 g bottle.
"We don't have to promote our sesame oil because people know that it is real and good," Cui explains.
Cui's seasonings shop receives mostly Korean customers, most of whom buy different Korean branded items such as Bul Go Gee marinade (20 yuan for a 960 g bottle), marinade used in traditional Korean beef barbecue.
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Not far from the stall, visitors can purchase handmade noodles (1.8 yuan per 500 g at stall No 17), tea, and even clothing.
All in all, the market is a good place to pick up Korean seasonings and ready-to-eat kimchi items at low prices. Only a handful of shops are tidy and well-lighted, however.
