The Korean population in Howard County is abuzz with the news that a large-scale Korean grocery store will take the place of the old Super Fresh supermarket at Golden Triangle Shopping Center in Ellicott City.
The Lotte Plaza will be the biggest Korean grocery in a town that is becoming well-known as a hub for affluent and well-educated Korean families in the Baltimore area.
Covering about 37,000 square feet -- including a food court -- it will offer such Asian staples as seaweeds, pickled radish and sticky white rice.
"There has been a lot of talk about that," said the Rev. Leo Rhee, the youth pastor at Bethel Korean Presbyterian Church, which has more than 1,000 members.
"It's getting pretty crowded," he added, reading a litany of Korean markets and stores -- many of them on U.S. 40 -- that have opened in Ellicott City since he moved there five years ago.
The Lotte Plaza, owned by Hana Ellicott Oriental Supermarket Inc., will open next month, said David Borinsky, a lawyer for the corporation. The store will carry not only Korean food, but Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian and other ethnic foods. It will sell fish whole, rather than sliced -- the way many Koreans like it -- and pig's feet, a popular Chinese delicacy.
Borinsky said affiliates operate by the same name in Rockville and Fairfax, Va.
"It's certainly a focal point of the Korean community, an important part of the emerging second generation," he said.
Koreans in the Ellicott City area say cooking plays a special role in the lives of first- and second-generation Korean immigrants who have been moving to the area in increasing numbers in the past three decades.
"Everyone's a good cook," said Rhee.
Yeon Jean Hugh, a Korean woman who has lived in Ellicott City for 30 years, said it is not unusual for Koreans to go to market several times a week, rather than once as many other Americans do.
Hugh said she and her husband drive to the Rockville Lotte whenever they have major shopping. She said she looks forward to a five-minute drive instead of a 40-minute trip. "We've needed one near here," she said.
Pub Date: 3/15/99