Eugene ended up being a good half-way stopping point for the long journey from the coast back to Bend. Plus, we had to stop so that J could watch a World Cup game. Much to my surprise, the Eugene Saturday Market was taking place, which of course had a farmer’s market along with it and a food court. Everything was locally grown and looked fabulous. There were berries everywhere.
White raspberries!

And all kinds of cherries!

But really, what everyone had, and what looked the best, were the oregon grown strawberries.

There were veggies as well, of course. Here are some beautiful cherry tomatoes of different colors. Although I know that tomatoes are actually fruit.

There were also tons of root vegetables, like these turnips and beets. Potatoes were also all over the place.

Along with some cucumbers and some onions and some even more gorgeous red torpedo onions.

This dude was selling crazy mushrooms that he grows. I wonder what other kinds of non-food mushrooms he grows? Because after all, this is Eugene, and man, hippies abound!

Dungeness crab is everywhere in Oregon, and you can even find some here.

Here, they were selling freshly homemade salsas as well as fresh corn tortillas that a lady was cooking up, right on the spot.

There were food vendors in the proper food court, which was part of the regular craft vendor part. But in the farmers market, there were also a few food vendors, including this pastie shop.

J got some fish tacos. He liked these, but was surprised by the spicy salsa that was plopped on top.

I got a little teriyaki bowl from a food court vendor called “nice rice”. My nice rice bowl was brown rice topped with teriyaki chicken and veggies. It was perfectly fine. All the produce looked amazingly fresh, and if I lived in Eugene, I would hope to get my fresh fruits and veggies here all the time!

After my long flight, I was still extremely hungry. The last full meal was about 9 hours before and the snack had only made my shakes go away. I needed real food, stat. And some groceries, so we headed out to H Mart to take care of both. I keep telling H/A that he should break out of his mold and get something besides bulgogi or galbi when he eats korean. But then he ends up ordering bulgogi, like in this case, and then regrets it. I mean this wasn’t bad, but it was fairly boring. And it really wasn’t the best gulgogi out there. It was just super sweet. The banchan wasn’t that great either.
I can also be a creature of habit when it comes to eating. A few weeks ago I had eaten the jjamppong by itself. And a few weeks before that I’d eaten the chajangmyun by itself. This time, I wanted both, so I got both. I love these little dual compartment bowls. I love trying everything, so this is one of my favorite dishes at the good ol H Mart food court. I wish all restaurants would let you have two half portions of all dishes instead of just one.  I’ve never ordered anything from the japanese/sushi spot at H Mart. This was from awhile back when I was at H Mart with my mom and she got the udon. Look how beautiful it is! Next time, I’m eating this!

I had dinner with my mom the other night, and instead of going to a proper sit-down place, I just kind of wanted to go to the H Mart food court instead. I was definitely feeling korean, but wasn’t sure what kind, so I wanted all possible options to be available. I wanted noodles. Typically, I would get the jjamppong. It’s just what I do. But I wasn’t feeling it that night. I wanted chajangmyun instead. Now, I could have actually gotten a combination of both. They have these bowls with two chambers, and you get chajangmyun in one half and jjamppong in the other.  But I wanted to go pure this night.  So I got chajangmyun instead. But then as I was waiting for my food, I saw some others eating these enormous bowls of jjamppong and I got jealous. And I began regretting my decision.

The particular one that my mom made me order had the noodles and the sauce come out separately. For that, you pay an extra dollar, and my mom said this one tastes better.  Sure mom. She also said it had lots of shrimp in it. Or so she thought. It ended up not having any shrimp in it at all, just the normal beef, but it tasted great. I didn’t regret my decision at all.

My mom got dolsot bibimbap. There was something off about this dish on this particular occasion. Neither of us was sure what it was, but there was just something that tasted funny. In the end, we think one of the veggies was just not right. And we don’t mean rotten or anything, just off. And that kind of made the whole dish taste off. We still ate it anyway, but it’s been much better before. We’re hoping this was just a one time deal.