KMall 09 in Lidcombe is a must visit if you love Korean food or Korean products. This enormous 2000 square metre/21,500square foot store is located at Lidcombe Shopping Centre and not only can you find an enormous range of Korean grocery items you can also have a meal at the food court or buy KBeauty products, appliances, blankets and outdoor tents. So what can you expect on your visit to KMall?
Dear Reader, I am in my Korean food era and I obsessed with anything K Food (and K beauty) related. So when Sophia suggested that we go to KMall, I was very excited to see what it was like.
KMall 09 is on the top floor of the expansive Lidcombe Shopping centre and takes up space at one end of the centre with a second floor scheduled to open in June. It's a slightly futuristic and very modern looking warehouse style superstore. You can use trolleys or a range of baskets to shop with and the first section is of fresh flowers and fresh fruit and vegetables. Soft lettuces are sold in a cloud of mist to keep them fresh while enormous daikon radishes and squash are sold alongside adorable miniature pumpkins.
As expected there's a large range of pickled radish, some sold already sliced long for making gimbab (my passion). There's also a large display of kim chi and ready made snacks. Everything you could ever want is there - except banana milk. Korean people love the tetra packs of banana milk and while other flavours are available (taro etc) the banana has sold out.
There are plenty of ready meals in the fridge section and prepackaged meats, all perfect for barbecue, soups and stews. Everything looks fantastically fresh and there is a lot of wagyu available, more than you would find at a Western supermarket.
There are also spot specials. I bought some honey toast which was $2.50 down from $5 with an expiry date of 2025 and you can find other specials all clustered within one display. Other specials are the milk drinks and konnyakku drinks.
I round the corner and I'm excited to find the food court. I quickly find Sophia and we decide to have something to eat. It's 6:30pm and every single table is taken and it can be difficult to nab a table as it's like musical chairs. Your best bet is to see who is almost finished and stand near their table. There are 5 vendors here all selling different things: there's a butcher, another vendor sells tteokbokki and fried dumplings, another sells soups and gimbab while another sells Korean Fried Chicken. There is also the very popular fish cake chain Samjin Amook and there's also Brown Born bakery. You do want to arrive before 7pmish or ideally before 6pm because the bakery and Simbaj sell out before then.
Seeing gimbab we make an order at Buddumak and take a buzzer while Sophia stakes out a table. We both find empty tables at the same time and are only waiting 10 minutes. By that time the buzzer sounds and we have our tray to collect the gimbab and dumpling soup. I grab a mandarin juice from the Red Pepper stand that tastes like pure mandarin juice, no ice or anything else added to it.
The gimbab is premade and was discounted from $9 to $5 (love a bargain!). It's delicious and I love the sautéed spinach, Korean SPAM, sauteed carrot and egg inside it and the sesame rice. I could eat kimbab every day.
But even as much as I loved the gimbab, I absolutely loved the beef bone soup with rice cakes, beef, dumplings and vegetables. It's not spicy at all but that doesn't mean it's bland. The broth is remarkably full of flavour and pitch perfect. It's so good that even though I am full I keep going back to more soup sometimes spearing a rice cake or a slice of beef.
As we were sitting there I saw so many stop by Samjin Amook and was curious to see why they were so busy. It is Korea's most popular fish cake bakery that sells items that you can heat up using fish cakes. At the front counter they also have a soup with fish cakes on a stick that is just about perfect for winter. I remember having something similar when I lived in Japan where it was called Odeng. In Korea it is called Eomuk and it is sold per piece in a cup with some fish broth made with seaweed. It's deliciously warming and springy textured. I see other customers come back and ask for more soup afterwards too which they ladle into the cup.
For dessert Sophia bought a flat croissant or keu-loong-gi from the Brown Born bakery. It comes in a clear plastic sleeve and is pressed flat and brushed with syrup that caramelises once it is pressed. Holy heavens it's good - buttery and crisp and moreish although the size somehow makes it best for sharing or nibbling at for a long time! And I become so obsessed with it that I make my own version of a Korean flat croissant at home.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you enjoy grocery shopping? Do you ever just wander the aisles of supermarkets when overseas?
All food was independently paid for.
KMall 09
Lidcombe Shopping Mall
92 Parramatta Rd, Lidcombe NSW 2141
Open 7 days 8:30am-9:30pm
https://kmall09.com.au/
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