How to Find Some Seoul in Solway

Driving west on Highway 2 out of Bemidji, Minn., you might blink and pass right by the best tasting egg roll you've ever had.

But every week, in a back kitchen inside S&S Outlet store in Solway, Minn. (population 98), a Korean woman quietly makes a thousand egg rolls by hand. The 72-year-old Minam Morris says she can't keep up with demand.

"I have got people from all over [who come]," she said, while rolling her handiwork at a table recently.

Minam means "beautiful sound" in Korean. And the sounds of deliciousness from her kitchen are just that. Soon, oil bubbled from her deep fryer, signaling that it was time to let the pork and cabbage egg rolls descend. Nearby, stir-fried spicy pork hummed and cracked in a frypan on the stove. Morris transferred sweet bulgogi book to a serving dish from another pan. Garlicky sweet potato noodles, or japchae, were also freshly cooked to round out the meal. Many of these items can be pre-ordered and picked up in person.

Besides prepared foods like kimchi and her famous pork egg rolls, Minam sells staples like ramen noodles or ramyeon in Korean, seaweed sheets or gim, and an array of sauces and other items not typically found at a local grocery store.

"I can make it better myself," Morris chuckles as she motions to the Korean barbecue sauce jars that line her shelves.

It's hard to believe there's an Asian food market here, nestled off the highway on a quiet, unassuming commercial street. But Minam Morris's business is flourishing, and that's because of word of mouth.

Morris came to the U.S. in 1975 and ended up in Ohio. She became a citizen three years later.  Eventually, she met her current husband, Troy, a military vet, and the settled in Minnesota because of his love for fishing.

"He's from Kentucky," Minam explained."He likes cold places for fishing. He and the kids found Bemidji, so we came back," she said. They decided to stay.

"I told him I will come one year and if I don't like it I'm going," she recalled. "But now I love it here."

And the community has loved her back. Eighteen years ago, Morris and her husband decided to open an antique and used housewares store. Morris longed to make dishes from her native Korea, but the nearest Asian food markets were hours away. So, she decided to open a grocery market of her own, with ingredients for Korean, Chinese and southeast Asian food. But in a community with few Asians, at first Morris had to do a lot of demonstrations.

"First time it was kind hard, no Asian in here, but I tell the people, I'll show them how to do the cooking. And so now American customers like to make and eat kimchi rice, bulgogi and everything," she said.

Those eggrolls and her homemade kimchi soon became hot sellers. People like Carol Lichtscheidl of Bemidji started to regularly frequent the shop just for the egg rolls. On a recent day, she came in to pick up eight dozen of them.

"Most of this is going to the Twin Cities for my sister, she is so excited," Lichtscheidl said. "This is the only place you can get good ones."