Thursday, June 26, 2008

H Mart: Ten Easy Pick-ups

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the H Mart, my favorite place for food.

You can enjoy the H Mart even if you don't cook. There are prepared foods and foods that you can just eat off the shelf. Start there. Maybe you'll see other items that you want to try or see something that sparks your fancy. To keep this short, I'll just list th
em here.

1) Lunch: Against the right wall is a Korean takeout place
and a sushi counter. Have lunch. Try the beef soup.

2) Korean melon (right): Slice and eat one of these yellow melons or any other exotic fruit. In produce.

3) Kimchi: Take a refrigerated jar of pickled cabbage or other vegetables from the display in the back near produce.

4) Seaweed wrappers (right): Super-cool item to make dinner right out of the pantry with rice and tuna fish. It's like a sushi wrapper. Just make rice and pour on a little seasoned rice vinegar (also available at H Mart).
Moisten a can of tuna with the vinegar as well. Then, make little rolls with the seasoned rice and a dollop of tuna. Aisle Four near the front.

5) Edamame: Frozen soybeans, steam or microwave for a snack or appetizer.

6) Hai Reum brand dumplings: Delicious dumplings -- veg or meat -- to steam or pan fry. Generally in the open freezer in the middle of the frozen aisle.

7) Azuki ice cream: Red bean ice cream, eat it right from the container. In frozen.

8) Nong Shim potato-flavored snack: It's like an airy potato chip in the shape of a cheeto. Across from the dairy.

9) Choripdong soybean curd (right): Triangle pockets the size of a matchbook that come with a sauce. Season some rice with the enclosed sauce, then stuff in the pockets. In the refrigerated/dairy section.

10) Donut: On the way out, MoMo Bakery is in front. Take a snack for the road. Red bean donuts are spectacular. The "potato salad" donut is a lightly sweet treat -- no mayonnaise or anything gross.

Bonus Item: Check the vinegar aisle for Yoricho cooking vinegar, which turns vegetables into the easiest quick pickles.

If you want to try "ready-to-eat" items at other markets, check out Caezar's for Middle Eastern, Lily's for Mexican, Desi Bazaar for Indian or any of the other markets in Howard County.

H Mart
800 N. Rolling Road
Catonsville, MD 21228
443-612-9020

NEAR: Rte 40 just west of I-695. If you are driving from HoCo, you'll see a Starbucks and a FedEx at the end of the shopping center. Turn right immediately after the Starbucks. If you miss it, just turn right at the next intersection.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We were at H-mart tonight browsing for some yummy desert, when we randomly decided to see what was in the "hunari town" foodcourt (maybe spelled incorrectly) that's just to the right of H-mart. To our delight, there's a new Pink-berry knock-off, Mango Berry, just inside to the right. They have yummy yogurt and lots of toppings, including cereal, fruit, and chocolate chips. Even more exciting, they also serve a REALLY delicious shaved-ice, red-bean paste Korean dessert that I HIGHLY recommend. They said they've been open about 3 weeks and that they're open until 10pm every day! If you like Pink Berry or red bean paste/shaved ice Korean desert, I highly recommend it!

Anonymous said...

Love your site! Our family favorite at H-mart is the homemade rice cakes that are made in the back near the fish market. My kids love them, and on Saturdays, you can still buy them warm.