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!
Burdock (Arctium lappa) root (borre)
Dropwort, presumably Oenanthe javanica (water dropwort), a common vegetable in the Far East (more on this one in an upcoming blog!)
Dried bracken fern (einstape)
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)…. :(
Gosari is also bracken fern
Dried sweet potato stem
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
Dried roots of balloon flower (Platycodon)
Garlic stem? These were very long if they are garlic scapes (flower stem)
Ginseng root
Chinese yam?
Mugwort powder (Artemisia spp.)
Taro stem, Colocasia esculenta
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?
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
