Following a recipe starts with finding the ingredients. Fortunately, California is the best-served state in the US for Korean groceries — here is every route, from Korean supermarkets to the store down the street.
When you miss Korean food, the first obstacle is not the cooking — it is the shopping. Gochugaru, doenjang and sesame oil are hard to place in an American store, starting with what to even search for in English.
The good news first: California has the best access to Korean ingredients in the country. Korean supermarket chains operate in multiple cities, Asian markets reach further still, and these days regular American supermarkets carry the basics. Work through the routes below from the top.
Korean supermarket chains, H Mart among them, operate across California — concentrated where Korean communities are, such as LA, Orange County and the Bay Area. One trip covers nearly everything the recipes on this site call for, including fresh produce and Korean-style meat cuts like samgyeopsal and chadolbaegi.
Find the nearest store on each chain's website or a map app. Locations open and close, so that will always beat any address list we could print here.
If a Korean market is far, try large Chinese markets such as 99 Ranch, or Japanese and Vietnamese markets. Ingredients shared across Asian cooking — tofu, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice, most vegetables — are all there, and many carry Korean-specific items like gochujang and gochugaru in an international section.
This also matches what this site is about — wherever you are from, start with what your own neighborhood offers. Cooking with a workable substitute tonight beats waiting for the perfect ingredient.
The international (or Asian) aisle of a large US supermarket almost certainly has soy sauce, sesame oil, tofu and rice. Kimchi and gochujang have gone mainstream in recent years — jarred versions are now a common sight in ordinary chains.
A quick trick: search 'soy sauce', 'sesame oil', 'gochujang' or 'kimchi' in the store's app or website. Many chains show stock and aisle location, which saves a wasted trip.
Korean and Asian online grocery services deliver across most of California. Heavy, shelf-stable items — bags of rice, jars of fermented pastes — are easier online, and if the nearest Korean market is a long drive, delivery becomes the main route.
Before ordering, check the delivery area, minimum order and fees. These differ by service and change often, so compare a couple and settle on what fits your area.
These six unlock a good share of the recipes on this site:
All of these keep for months in the pantry or fridge. Fresh items — vegetables, meat, tofu — you can pick up anywhere, as needed.