Apple Kimchi anyone?

Kimchi is a very popular as a traditional Korean food.

Shoppers can even find kimchi–fermented Napa cabbage that is very healthy Korean staple–at most of your neighborhood supermarkets in the GTA.

The dish has become so mainstream as of late that even U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama has posted her own kimchi recipe on Twitter (image on left) using the Napa cabbage grown that she personally picked from her home garden (which just happens to be at the White House).

The Korean dish is now being modernized with new combinations of ingredients. Our in-house chef at Galleria, Jina Choi has created a mango kimchi salad.

And recently, celebrity chef David Chang of Momofuku in Toronto contacted Galleria to make apple kimchi for them.

This shows that food in grocers’ HMR sections is just as good (or better) than restaurant food.

Shoppers are also getting more sophisticated with their selection of food at grocery retail, and are looking for dishes that are tasty, healthy and now more than ever, on trend.

Take the Korean fried chicken craze (dak bulgogi) that first started in New York, New Jersey and California, and has now made its way north of the border.

It takes fried chicken and combines it with a spicy Korean barbecue sauce frequently used on Korean beef short ribs. The result is a spicy-salty-sweet combination. Galleria introduced it last year and it’s been a great addition to our extensive HMR offer.

Galleria’s chef Jina Choi recognizes that she needs to do her due diligence to stay on top of current food trends and to introduce new products to our shoppers so they keep coming back.

As grocers become more expected to deliver tasty, fresh and trendy food items, the line between good restaurants and grocers is becoming even more blurred.