1. Joong Boo
We’re starting at Joong Boo market, which is a traditional Asian grocery store in Avondale. Even if you’re not familiar with this place, I suspect you may have seen their big green sign which is visible from the Kennedy Expressway going towards O’hare. We’re finally giving you an excuse to check this place out.
We’re not here to grocery shop, but rather we’re here to indulge on some traditional Korean cuisine. There’s actually two places to grab prepared food.
The first is their dumpling stand located right in front of the store entrance. This walk-up “wang mandoo” stand, otherwise known as Korean dumplings, sells wang mandoos for $3.50 a piece. They are about the size of palm of your hand and this steamed flour dough is filled with one of three fillings: pork, kimchi and noodles, or red bean.
Inside and set towards the back of Joong Boo is a small counter-service restaurant called the “Snack Corner.” This is where you can order from a whole variety of traditional Korean dishes.
Trying to figure out what to eat can be overwhelming, but luckily there is a big menu on the wall with pictures of every dish to make it easier. The food is good, affordable, and will fill you up.
One other thing we stumbled upon at Joong Boo, which doesn’t really have anything to do with this guide, is that on Wednesday’s and Friday’s they sell a giant assorted platter of sashimi for $30. You may be thinking, ‘oh, big deal,’ but to put this in context, the platter is big enough to feed 5 people and would run you well over $150 if you were to go to a sushi restaurant and get the same thing.
When I saw that deal I thought I was taking crazy pills, and then I started to wonder about the economics of sushi restaurants, which led me down a rabbit hole of late night wikipedia’ing of the fishing industry.
The last thing to keep in mind is that this place is a full service Asian grocery store too. Stock up on a few bags of shrimp chimps for the rest of this guide.
