I'm Korean-American and I tasted Trader Joe's Korean-inspired products. Here's how they stacked up.

I lost my innocence at a young age over a sandwich. When my teeth sunk into that white soft bread like an apple in the garden of Eden, and like Eve I found shame in the relief of belonging.

I'd felt freed from that humiliation that stopped me from eating my omma's carefully packed lunches of kare rice with little containers of kimchi and eventually led me to ask her to stop making me Korean lunches because they were "stinky."

But now Korean food is cool and it's given me a complex. Korean restaurants earn Michelin stars, Korean BBQ spots are widespread, and Trader Joe's even carries Korean-inspired food.

So when I went to Korea for the first time at age 23 and ate the same food my parents did in the city that wasn't even a city when they were born and raised, I no longer shrink. I find some happiness that there is a Korean kid out there who may never have to hear that their lunch is smelly. I also find comfort in being able to get Korean food beyond the aisles of H-mart and Korean Korner.

I just moved to New York and haven't been able to find a Korean grocery store near me yet, but Trader Joe's has remedied some of my homesickness.

With that, here's what I — a Korean American who just returned from Korea — think of some of its takes on Korean delicacies.

My omma's galbi is special, a multiday affair of blending, marinading, and grilling short ribs that are tenderly sweet, savory, and smoky. When I tasted Trader Joe's Korean-style short ribs I instantly missed her.

Trader Joe's version of galbi surprised me with how balanced the flavors were, especially because it wasn't too sweet or dry. The short ribs are definitely one of the pricier items at Trader Joe's at $15.99, but they're worth it for how they capture the perfect amount of fattiness.

For best results, place the galbi in the oven on a rack that's over a baking sheet filled with water. This will catch the fat and hydrate the meat — it's how my omma does it.

For those who are vegetarian and want to experience Korean BBQ, Trader Joe's Korean beefless bulgogi will uncannily deliver.

However, the texture of the bulgogi was less akin to its namesake but rather quite similar to galbi. My vegetarian friend who tried this said this was "giving jackfruit."

I think the beefless bulgogi fails as a vegetarian replica of its namesake, but it succeeds as one for galbi.

I think the highest compliment a Korean can give a piece of food is that it's not too sweet.

That being said, I was impressed that Trader Joe's tteok bok ki, rice cakes simmered in a gochujang-based sauce, had a perfect amount of softness and chewiness.

However, the sauce was too sweet for my taste — and I have some of the weakest taste buds in my family. My cousin who tried this echoed the sentiment, so I added Trader Joe's gochujang paste in an attempt to give it more of a kick. I thought the paste was also too sweet on its own but it kind of helped.

I don't know if it is trying to be sundubu-jjigae, a soft tofu stew, or kimchi-jjigae, a kimchi-based stew. Either way, I didn't think this soup was good.

It had a thick consistency that is at odds with whatever dish it was trying to replicate. I also thought the soup was too sweet and missing a lot of spice and bite from the kimchi.

Traditionally, when serving a jigae, the rice is kept separate and mixed in later. Trader Joe's didn't do this and thus the rice was soggy, but the chain gets points for using black rice as it is what many old-school Koreans eat.

On special days, my omma would make hotteok, a pancake filled with brown sugar, from scratch. The recipe is quite simple but more often than not she'd microwave or fry frozen versions from H-Mart.

She would make heaps of them for international nights in elementary school and she'd do the same when I had to bring cultural food for my human geography class in high school.

I was hoping for a taste of home with these, but Trader Joe's sweet cinnamon-filled Korean pancakes missed the mark. The pancake was too thick with too much cinnamon, which gave the filling a gritty texture. I thought they also felt off without the traditional chopped peanuts or sesame in the filling.

Fried rice is another staple my omma would make. My omma's fried rice is a wealth of ingredients with peas, corn, crab, shrimp, carrots, onions, and whatever vegetable mix we had in the freezer.

It was still tasty but I was disappointed. In my opinion, Trader Joe's bulgogi beef fried rice lacked all of the fixings and majorly skimped out on the bulgogi and kimchi.

This fried rice would make a great base for a meal but should never be the headliner — it does not have the gall.