All About H Mart and Asian Groceries in the U.S.

[liuzhou]

6 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

egg rolls and ever- present duck sauce and hot mustard packets

which as I've pointed out before aren't Chinese.

Clams and black fermented beans is a fairly common dish where I am, but not in most of China. Too far from  the clam beds I guess.  Many years ago, I spent time living in Xi'an (one tear) and later, Hunan (two years). Never saw a clam! Much to my regret.

Edited May 27, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, BeeZee said:

I stopped in a fairly new Asian food market that is near my office - just happened to see it on Google maps. It is called Hung Vuong Food Market, although the register receipt at the top says Heng Fa Supermarket.

No, I did not brave the durian (which they had fresh and frozen, and I think I saw some cut up and wrapped as well). There was an amazing assortment of fresh produce, I did buy some fresh lychees ($2.99/lb) and a Gaia melon which I had misread the price for at $1.99, that was the per pound price, so this $6 melon better be really good. Lots of good stuff, including some individual serving packets of some banchan type items, I did grab one shredded kelp.

 

I don't think there were any fresh durians there..... probably just frozen and defrosted.  It is illegal to import fresh fruit from SE Asia (it all has to be frozen), and I don't think anyone has been successful at growing durian in the US or areas from where we can bring in fresh - like Puerto Rico or Mexico.  It's possible that they could have the cut fruit - but it would have been whole defrosted fruit that was cut in the store.

 

When I was in Singapore they had stalls selling durian (in various grades) - both whole fruit, and already cut fruit on a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic.

[liuzhou]

3 minutes ago, KennethT said:

 

When I was in Singapore they had stalls selling durian (in various grades) - both whole fruit, and already cut fruit on a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic.

 

Same here.

[BeeZee]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Don't think they would have them cut. Maybe jackfruit? Nice shop find.

My mistake, they were jackfruit. I had that thought (how to contain the stink)...I can't wait to go back when I have a cooler and get some frozen dumplings.

[heidih]

21 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Same here.

Right but in Singapore during the season it is i the air and not unusual. Here it would be eyebrow raising

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 5/11/2021 at 11:33 AM, Paul Bacino said:

I usually see tons of fish on ice in these markets...  I have yet to pull the tab.

 

I mean u can get mackerel, Butterfish ,Pompano, carp and a whole lot of other whole fish varieties ..that I have know idea.

Curious on thoughts of sea food from these markets.  

Clement Street, San Francisco's second Chinatown, is several blocks from our house.   There are at least three "whole fish on ice" markets that we patronize.    Brilliant red gills, clear as glass eyes.   Excellent product for the most part.    They gut, clean and scale the fish for you.    Will probably filet should you ask.   Shellfish in aerated tanks.    Language translation can be the only problem if you don't know your fish.    So take a leap and open a new window!

[jkarpf]

As awful as the pandemic has been, I've enjoyed the wider and deeper access to such deliciousness via deliveries, since we've been sheltering very strictly. 

 

All durian is shipped to the US East Coast frozen, so far as I know, so if it's "fresh" I'm sure it's been thawed.

 

(My coop board's not gonna see this, right?)

Edited May 27, 2021 by jkarpf (log)

[KennethT]

I've found that frozen durian doesn't smell nearly as strong (once thawed) as the fresh ones do.

[heidih]

Smells we are not used to tweak our heads more than other intense odors. I had jackfruit in a plastic closed container once and got stuck on the freeway. It was hot, smell intense - more cloying really. But it tasted great while I waited for traffic to clear on the notorious 405 in L.A.  Do let us know how you enjoyed the durian.

[KennethT]

12 minutes ago, heidih said:

Smells we are not used to tweak our heads more than other intense odors. I had jackfruit in a plastic closed container once and got stuck on the freeway. It was hot, smell intense - more cloying really. But it tasted great while I waited for traffic to clear on the notorious 405 in L.A.  Do let us know how you enjoyed the durian.

You could smell a durian stand in Singapore from across the street and down the block. Outside, not inside.

[BeeZee]

I broke into one of the lychees at the office and it was delicious. Hard to describe it to co-workers who were unfamiliar, the closest I could think of was mild honeydew to give them a frame of reference. They had cases of mangoes and I was sorely tempted. I may be going back next week.

[chefmd]

Raw seafood purchased at H Mart, as fresh as seafood gets.

[heidih]

59 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

I broke into one of the lychees at the office and it was delicious. Hard to describe it to co-workers who were unfamiliar, the closest I could think of was mild honeydew to give them a frame of reference. They had cases of mangoes and I was sorely tempted. I may be going back next week.

On a hot day put them in icy water,  They are extremely refreshing.

[MokaPot]

1 hour ago, BeeZee said:

I broke into one of the lychees at the office and it was delicious. Hard to describe it to co-workers who were unfamiliar, the closest I could think of was mild honeydew to give them a frame of reference. They had cases of mangoes and I was sorely tempted. I may be going back next week.

 

If they know what rambutan tastes like, you could say lychee tastes like rambutan. Here's a photo (not my photo). IMO, lychee is a lot better than rambutan, though. Maybe I just have never had a good rambutan.

 

[heidih]

Well they ARE prettier. Agree on taste.

[Eatmywords]

17 hours ago, KennethT said:

You could smell a durian stand in Singapore from across the street and down the block. Outside, not inside.

Ahh, nothing like the first time you smell fresh durian.  It's a 'how is this possible?' moment.  I think of not showering for a year and combining that smell with spoiled onions and garlic.  Delish.  Jackfruit is heavenly in comparison.

[Paul Bacino]

@Margaret Pilgrim--  Thanks for the heads up.. 

 

Kinda have to laugh  " Language translation can be the only problem if you don't know your fish. "  __  most of our Asian markets are run with Spanish people in the fish dept.

[Jaymes]

Our Asian markets in Houston have fresh mangosteen.  I was so hopeful. But they were horrible.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, Paul Bacino said:

@Margaret Pilgrim--  Thanks for the heads up.. 

 

Kinda have to laugh  " Language translation can be the only problem if you don't know your fish. "  __  most of our Asian markets are run with Spanish people in the fish dept.

Mine are about half and half Spanish speakers and whatever the market is - Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese.  Most of the Latino workers in produce and meat/fish in Korean markets have learned a fair amount of Korean and can joke in Korean.

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, Jaymes said:

Our Asian markets in Houston have fresh mangosteen.  I was so hopeful. But they were horrible.

Were they really fresh or were they defrosted or irradiated?

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, Jaymes said:

Our Asian markets in Houston have fresh mangosteen.  I was so hopeful. But they were horrible.

 

It's rather early for mangosteens. They don't normally come into season until July.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

It's rather early for mangosteens. They don't normally come into season until July.

If these were grown in North America or the Caribbean where they can be imported into the US, the season may be a little different. Personally I've never seen a mangosteen in the NY area that wasn't either imported frozen or irradiated, both of which irreparably damage the fruit.  I've seen a few people in my fruit selling FB group selling mangosteen but after lots of questioning it turns out that they had been frozen.

[chefmd]

Beautiful shiitake mushrooms at 7.99 a pound.

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, chefmd said:

Beautiful shiitake mushrooms at 7.99 a pound.

 

 

Flower shiitake! Beautiful indeed.

 

BTW, that price is about four times what I pay for them here!

[Kim Shook]

While up in northern VA on Thursday, Jessica and I stopped at the H Mart on Fairfax Blvd.  The store is so much larger than the Asian markets we have here and the selection is amazing.  I don’t purchase fresh meat or fish at our markets because of the bad odor in both areas of the stores.  But H Mart is pristine – no smell in the fish section:

and everything looks great and so clean in the meat department.  They have an entire kimchi/fermented row, a large selection of refrigerated fresh noodles, beautiful produce, etc.  We managed to find the ssamjang that Duvel (eG) suggested trying instead of gochujang.  We got Mr. Kim some spicy instant noodles.  We got some of those cute little mushroom cookies.  We did not buy duck heads:

 

or fishballs:

 

👀

 

This made me smile:

 

How I wish we had an H Mart in our area!