I was keen to visit a Korean supermarket when I was in Vancouver and some Koreans I met in Victoria on a walk recommended H Mart, a chain of supermarkets specialising in Asian food and particularly Korean. The “H” in “H Mart” stands for Han Ah Reum, a Korean phrase meaning “one arm full of groceries”!
I was hoping to find Korean Aster (chwinamul or Aster scaber), but I couldn’t find it… However, there were a few other interesting perennial vegetables!
Acorn powder (oak acorn flour). This reminds me of this article about foraging acorns of the Garry Oak (the species that I saw a lot of in Victoria BC, growing with the camas!): http://arcadianabe.blogspot.no/2012/11/how-to-eat-acorn.html
Crown daisy or Chopsuey Greens (Glebionis coronaria syn. Chrysanthemum coronarium). See my article about how this Mediterranean annual native plant became a super vegetable in the Far East here:http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3493
Aloe stem?
Dropwort, presumably Oenanthe javanica (water dropwort), a common vegetable in the Far East (more on this one in an upcoming blog!)
Taro stem, Colocasia esculenta
Chamnamul – the original chamnamul is a plant in the carrot family, Pimpinella brachycarpa. However, the real plant is rare it seems and what you get is often Cryptotaenia japonica: See http://bburikitchen.com/cham-namul-pimpinella-brachycarpa . I have a plant of Pimpinella brachycarpa (seed off ebay) in the cellar and it does look very much like Cryptotaenia (no redness in the stems)…. :(
Ginseng root
Burdock (Arctium lappa) root (borre)
Dried sweet potato stem
Garlic stem? These were very long if they are garlic scapes (flower stem)
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