Traders Market : a Large Korean Supermarket in Eastwood, Sydney
Sydney has plenty of Asian supermarkets, making it relatively easy to find Japanese ingredients, as well as seasonings commonly used in Korean and Chinese cooking that many Japanese people are familiar with.
In some areas, stepping out of the train station feels like you've suddenly arrived in Koreatown or Chinatown!
This time, I visited Traders Market, a large Korean supermarket in Eastwood, Sydney. Let me show you around!
Eastwood: Enjoy Both Koreatown and Chinatown in Sydney!
Eastwood is a suburb north-west of Sydney's city centre with a large Asian population.
It's particularly known for its Korean and Chinese restaurants and supermarkets, making it a unique place where you can experience both Koreatown and Chinatown in one visit.
One of the most interesting things about Eastwood is how the atmosphere changes depending on which side of the train station you're on.
The western side of Eastwood Station has many Chinese restaurants and grocery stores, while the eastern side has more Korean businesses.
When you look out at Eastwood from the train, one side is full of Korean signs and the other is lined with Chinese signs. It almost feels as though the station is standing right between Korea and China, which I find fascinating!
As well as Korean and Chinese restaurants, there are plenty of Asian bakeries, cafés and grocery stores, making Eastwood a great place for trying different foods or shopping for everyday ingredients.
How to Get to Eastwood
Eastwood is easily accessible by train from central Sydney.
From Central Station to Eastwood Station, the journey takes just over 30 minutes.
There are plenty of restaurants and supermarkets around the station, so it's an easy area to explore on foot, even without a car.
The large Korean supermarket I visited, Traders Market, is about a five-minute walk from Eastwood Station.
Interestingly, it's located on the Chinatown side, so the surrounding area has lots of Chinese shops and restaurants.
Traders Market is open from 9 am to 9 pm on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and 9 am to 8 pm on weekends (Saturday and Sunday).
It's great that the opening hours make it possible to stop by after work!
Traders Market's Instagram account is here:
Korean Costco!? Traders Market, a Large Korean Supermarket in Sydney
Spacious Aisles for a Relaxed Shopping Experience
After walking through a lively arcade lined with Chinese shops, you'll find Traders Market towards the back.
There are large shopping baskets near the entrance, which somehow reminded me of Costco!
The aisles inside were wide and easy to walk through.
I've noticed that quite a few Asian supermarkets tend to have narrow aisles, but Traders Market was much easier to navigate. I could take my time browsing and enjoy shopping without feeling cramped.
Korean Food Essentials: A Huge Selection of Kimchi and Pickled Radish
The first thing that caught my eye was the kimchi section!
Since kimchi is such an essential part of Korean cuisine, it makes sense that there were so many varieties, but I was still impressed by how large the section was.
Personally, I like JONGGA kimchi because it isn't too spicy and has a lovely savoury flavour. There were plenty of varieties I'd never seen before, so I'd love to take this opportunity to try some different ones!
There was also a great selection of pickled radish, an essential ingredient for gimbap (Korean seaweed rice rolls).
Pickled radish is delicious on its own, with a satisfying crunchy texture, and it's also perfect as a side dish with rice.
There were also lots of tteokbokki products, another Korean food favourite!
The chewy rice cakes, spicy sauce and rich, slightly sweet cheese make such an addictive combination.
It's quite a calorie-heavy dish, so I don't eat it very often, but every now and then I get a sudden craving for it!
There were several types of small dried fish too!
They're useful ingredients for both Korean and Japanese cooking.
Plenty of Snacks and Sweet Treats
There was also a great selection of snacks and frozen desserts.
I'm particularly curious about the matcha cream buns. They look so good...
They also had Japanese sweets such as dorayaki and mitarashi dango.
The individual cakes were a little pricey at A$13.50 each, but they were quite large and looked satisfying.
I wonder if tiramisu is particularly trendy in Sydney at the moment? I've been seeing it everywhere, from market stalls to supermarkets!
They even had the famous 10-won bread, which was popular for a while (or is it still popular?).
A Great Selection of Japanese Food and Ingredients
Although Traders Market is a Korean supermarket, it also stocks quite a lot of Japanese food.
There may have been more varieties of natto than at most other Asian supermarkets I've visited!
As someone who loves natto, I was very happy to see this.
When I lived in New Zealand, I hardly ever came across hikiwari natto (finely chopped fermented soybeans).
Asian supermarkets usually stocked natto, but most of the time it was the small-bean variety in round containers, with only two or three options at most.
In Australia, I've noticed that chopped and hikiwari natto are much easier to find, which makes me want to make natto sushi rolls again after such a long time!
There were also frozen croquettes!
Somehow, just seeing the word Hokkaido on the packaging makes me feel like the food is guaranteed to be delicious. The power of the Hokkaido brand!
Crab cream croquettes take quite a bit of effort to make from scratch, so I'd love to buy a few varieties from this Hokkaido croquette range next time and compare them.
One of the Japanese dishes I make most often is udon.
In winter, I like hot udon topped with an onsen egg or added to kimchi hot pot soup. In summer, I often make cold udon topped with tuna and mayonnaise.
It only takes a few minutes to boil, it's filling, and it's perfect for lazy home cooking.
I always feel better knowing I have some frozen udon stocked in the freezer!
Easy Meal Ideas: Korean Side Dishes (Banchan) and Frozen Foods
Traders Market also sells a variety of ready-made side dishes, with some priced at under A$5.
In Korean cuisine, these small side dishes are called banchan (반찬).
I absolutely love soy-braised quail eggs, stir-fried dried anchovies and seasoned bean sprouts!
If you cook some rice at home and buy a few different types of banchan, you can easily put together a meal with several dishes and enjoy Korean food without much preparation.
The flavours and selection of banchan vary quite a lot between shops, so whenever I visit a Korean supermarket, I always check the banchan section.
Trying different side dishes from different shops has become one of my recent little pleasures!
There was also a limited-time promotion on fried rice in the frozen food section.
The offer was two packs for A$7.50 or three for A$9.50.
Each pack looked like enough for around 1.5 to 2 servings, so I bought two packs of the crab fried rice on the left and one pack of the tuna kimchi fried rice in the middle!
In the fresh food section, I also found a large salad set.
It appeared to be a set for wrapping vegetables in rice paper.
With several types of vegetables already cut and packed together, it looked like a convenient option to share when eating with a group.
There were also plenty of convenient noodle dishes.
From cold Korean noodles to steaming hot noodle soups, I love how Korean cuisine has so many delicious options to enjoy both hot and cold!
More Than Just Food! A Great Range of Kitchenware and Household Items
Traders Market doesn't just sell groceries. It also has a wide range of household goods, cleaning products and kitchenware. It really does feel like a Korean version of Costco!
From the entrance, the grocery section is on the left, while kitchenware and household items are on the right.
Personally, I find Costco so enormous that I end up exhausted from walking around every time I visit.
A supermarket around this size, with a good selection of products and spacious aisles, might actually be my ideal shopping experience!
The thing I was most excited to find here was bento takeaway containers!
Over the past few days, I'd been visiting several Daiso stores around Sydney, trying to find disposable bento containers in just the right size, but I hadn't had much luck.
Traders Market had exactly the kind of containers I was looking for, so I bought a few packs. They came with lids and compartments for rice and side dishes, and a pack of five cost just A$4. They might even be cheaper than Daiso!
If you're looking for affordable disposable bento containers in a convenient size, I'd definitely recommend checking Traders Market.
There were also some enormous stockpots that looked like the kind you'd see in a school kitchen.
These seemed more suited to commercial kitchens or restaurant owners, but it was interesting to see so many different shapes and sizes of frying pans and cooking equipment!
Bonus: I Found a Shop Selling Zojirushi Rice Cookers!
That's my review of Traders Market, a large Korean supermarket in Eastwood, Sydney!
As a little bonus, I also discovered that Hello Kitchen & Home, a Chinese kitchenware shop right next to Traders Market, sells Zojirushi rice cookers and drink bottles!
Hello Kitchen & Home, Eastwood:
I'd actually been looking for a Zojirushi rice cooker.
It was out of stock at Bing Lee, and the official Zojirushi website wasn't running any sales, so the prices were a little high.
In the end, I'd just bought a Tiger rice cooker instead. But then I found this shop selling a Zojirushi rice cooker at A$100 off...If only I'd come here a few days earlier! (´;ω;｀)
Zojirushi rice cookers seem to be very popular and often have limited stock, so if you're looking for a Japanese rice cooker in Sydney, it might be worth checking out some of the shops around Eastwood.
Final Thoughts: Is Traders Market Worth Visiting?
This time, I visited Traders Market, a large Korean supermarket in Eastwood, north-west Sydney!
There was a great selection of Korean instant noodles, kimchi and frozen foods, as well as Japanese ingredients such as natto, udon and seasonings.
It was also much more than just a grocery store, with plenty of tableware, bento containers, pots and other kitchenware.
The store was spacious and comfortable to browse, and I had fun just looking at all the Korean products I wasn't familiar with.
I'd recommend Traders Market not only to anyone looking for Korean ingredients in Sydney, but also to people shopping for Japanese groceries!
If you live in Sydney or happen to be visiting Eastwood, it's definitely worth stopping by! ('ω')ノ
