Rating:

I hit Philadelphia’s H-Mart for the first time to stock up on groceries and was blown away by the expansiveness of this H-Mart.  It has the largest wall of freezer cabinets dedicated to dumplings I have ever seen, with the bags and boxes organized by country.  For some reason the O’Foods Hot Pepper Japchae Dumplings caught my eye.  O’Food is the global brand representing Korea’s Chung Jung One food brand, which was founded on 1956 in Sunchang province as a fermenter making Gochujang and Doenjang paste.    

As suggested by their name, these dumplings are primarily filled with glass noodles with a smattering of very finely chopped vegetables, which the package lists as: chives, radish, carrot, soy protein, mushroom and garlic.  These dumplings don’t have a lot of flavor except for spicy heat from the green paprika, chili, and black pepper in the filling, and have a mushy texture. Overall these dumplings were not great, but can be cooked in a microwave in their package in about three minutes, so they are very convenient. If you eat them with a strong soy and vinegar dipping sauce, these packages of six dumplings make an OK snack.