Local Knowledge: Soonhi Banchan’s Korean Dishes Are Shopping Cart Essentials

I ask social media what to try at West Ryde’s Soonhi Banchan – and receive recommendations all the way from Italy. This Korean grocer and kimchi specialist has a long-distance fan club: Monica Luppi (who ran Lulu’s Remedy Chilli Oil in Sydney) is now based in Emilia-Romagna as a travel concierge, but remains a Soonhi stan. She especially loves the banchan (side dish) of chilli-seasoned perilla leaves, she tells me in a DM, “with rice and an egg and your mouth goes whaaaaaaaaaaaaat thank you”.

Also a fan of the perilla? Fratelli Paradiso’s Trisha Greentree. When the chef fills her shopping basket with Soonhi Banchan’s take-home dishes – which are all prepped in-house – she reaches for spicy squid and eggplant banchan, and scans the kimchi fridges for radish-leaf and fresh white varieties. The shop’s soups (beef bone and chicken) make cameos in her home freezer too.

What else is good? “The fresh kimbap was one of the best I have had in Sydney,” Greentree says. These rolls are stuffed with various fillings (tuna, chilli pickles, sweet or spicy squid), and are the perfect “car snack”, even if you happen to have dinner plans later.

Chef Heather Jeong is another Soonhi regular. “I play golf at West Ryde, so I do a lot of shopping there,” the Korean food expert says. “I tend to buy kimbap and different types of namul, cooked veggies to top bibimbap, when I don’t want to cook.”

It’s a convenient way to taste labour-intensive Korean meals. “That’s probably the main reason that banchan shops like Soonhi are popping up all over Sydney,” she says.

When I scroll through the store’s Instagram account to learn more about the business, I notice Yeongjin Park is a follower. The chef created oven-baked magic at Lode Pies and Pastries, Tenacious Bakehouse and Self Raised Bread Shoppe, and I wonder what his banchan favourites are. I ask him – and discover the shop is essentially run by his wife’s family.

Launched in May 2021, Soonhi Banchan is operated by Jea Eun Bang, David Kim and Soon Lee Her. The prepping and cooking you hear out back? That kitchen’s led by Her, and the deli’s name riffs on what she’s called. “In Korea, the name Soon Lee is no longer very common and was more often given to women in the 1960s, which makes it feel like an old-fashioned yet familiar name from their mothers’ generation,” she explains. “That sense of familiarity is why the name was chosen.”

The kimchi here has lineage: the recipes have been passed down from Her’s grandmother. Stacks of meal-enhancing varieties fill the fridge shelves, the kimchi headlined by everything from spicy spring onions to cubed cucumber and bitter lettuce.

Jokbal (braised pig trotters) is flavoured with soy sauce, traditional medicinal herbs and the deep, rich flavours of a master stock that’s been maintained for more than a year.

Also popular: dakgangjeong (fried chicken), handmade mandu (dumplings), jeon (savoury pancakes) and excellent japchae (stir-fried glass noodles). Use that list of bestsellers as a helpful store guide because Soonhi Banchan’s variety is immense: everything from Korean mountain vegetables to pickled wild garlic is available.

I find myself doing an embarrassing number of store laps, augmented by investigative glances into people’s shopping carts (spicy tofu stew! seaweed salad! pumpkin soup made with sticky rice!) before determining my final order, which is partly inspired by what will survive spill-free on the train ride home – Korean potato salad is very commute-friendly, it turns out.

Before I leave, I notice a customer bringing Vietnamese-style rice paper rolls to the counter. This dish has resonated with Korean “ssam” traditions, the wrapping and assembling of your own meal. So, what began in Vietnam has been adapted to Korean tastes in recent decades – and is now called walnam ssam.

Jeong says her friends seek out Soonhi Banchan’s version of walnam ssam – ditto the jokbal. And I wonder if these dishes have an Italian fan club, too.

Soonhi Banchan
3a Chatham Road, West Ryde
0406 437 785

Hours:
Mon to Sat 7.30am–6.30pm

@soonhi_banchan