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Yesterday my husband and I were walking to the Damen blue line stop when a desperate-sounding young man clutching a dachsund called us over to his car. He was searching for HMart, elaborating unnecessarily that it was the largest Asian supermarket in the Midwest. It seems he had driven 800 miles to visit this mecca, but got a little turned around and ended up in Bucktown instead of Niles. I told him to turn left and drive for ten miles.

I had thought HMart was on Milwaukee, but found when I got home and checked the internet that it is in fact on Waukegan. Oops. I can't feel too guilty about it, though - who drives 800 miles to go somewhere and fails to write down the address?

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As a mattra-fact, Pie Face, you are beginning to look almost human. - Barbara Bennett

Well, at least you got him within shooting distance of it, right? Hopefully he stopped again after a while to ask someone else, especially as he got closer and the likelihood of running into someone who knew exactly WHAT h-mart is grew higher.

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"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you want and let the food fight it out inside."
-Mark Twain

Hi,

Earlier this year, LAZ arranged for a tour of H-Mart for visitors from e-Gullet. Those who participated in the tour were gifted with a jar of Korean fruit tea. Many who attended this program travelled by plane, train and bus, which caused people to give up their tea for anyone interested. As a local, I took several jars to taste.



The label indicates you can prepare this as a cold or hot drink. I began with the Honey Black Raspberry Tea, which reminded me of fruit syrup concentrates from Europe. I mixed a few tablespoons into a glass of water to taste. It was a refreshing late summer drink.

I have recently begun drinking Korean Honey Citron Tea stirred into hot water. I don't taste honey in this. I don't think there is Citron present either, though there is plenty of orange slices. Instead I consider it somewhat runny orange marmalade suitable for drinking, though I could envision spooning over ice cream or pancakes. I favor this an alternative to tea, which lately I have been drinking more than I prefer. Plus I have the bonus of chewing on the orange peel.

I have not gotten around to trying Honey Jujube Tea, which I have no conception what it will taste like.

I was at H-Mart the other day looking for this product. I was quite surprised to see a price tag around $9. per kilo jar. This is pretty pricey when you compare it to a liter of European fruit concentrates around $5 the last time I looked. Despite this issue, I thought it was a pretty good product. When I run out of the orange tea, I might use orange marmalade as a substitute. At a minimum, I have inspiration to regard a number of fruit concentrates as warm winter drinks.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
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Has anyone noticed a drop in quality at the Super H in Niles? I was there last Tuesday and there were mouldy noodles in the fresh noodle case. There was also a large bin of blue crabs in the seafood section-- they were not moving and they (or something very nearby) smelled horrible-- and after many years in a molecular biology lab, my sense of smell is not that great anymore. Yikes! Was this an aberration?

My shopping trips have been gravitating more towards Chicago foods-- I find the prices better.

Jen

I found that the citron tea (a different brand, though) made an outstanding cold drink.
Tea, it aint, but it's very tasty.
Word of advice: Don't use one of those iced tea dispensers with the little valve thingy at the bottom -- citrus peel clogs are no fun to clean out.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

Ever since Assi/Lotte opened, they've been going down the tubes slowly. I'd be a little surprised to see how Fresh Farms impacts their sales as well.

I first tried Korean Honey Citron Tea at my friend's parents' home in Seoul last year. I was hooked. I bought a jar to bring home w/me, and it was a whooping $12 or $15. I can't remember. Last spring, we picked up the one you show pictured for only $6.99 and it was b1g1! I do not detect honey either, but IMHO it is not as sweet as orange marmalade.

I was driving north from Niles a few weeks ago, stopped at H Mart Thai curry ingredients. AWFUL smell in the fish department, to the point where I left in a hurry. Popped in to Assi, which for some reason didn't impress me when it first opened. Wow, it was so much better! They had lime leaves, fresh water chestnuts, galangal and Thai basil. I bought a ton of other fruits and vegetables and was especially happy to see a freezer full of Korean popsicles in flavors like melon and taro. Nice little selection of shochu and other liquors too. What I didn't notice was the great homemade tofu like at H Mart, but I was in a hurry by that time and may have missed part of the store.

I've always been skeeved out by the fish section at H Mart anyway. The one at Assi didn't look that great either although it didn't seem actively bad like the one at H Mart. I've never bought fish at either place and don't expect to start.

That's a shame... $6.99/lb live lobsters, fresh whole hamachi, head-on shrimp for $2.79/lb, live tautog, live fluke, live dungeness... 2lb bags of mussels for $1.99 and THE BEST frozen opilio crab I've ever had (you gotta pick 'em though) for $4.99/lb...

Ever since I starting fishing, I've come to appreciate whole fish more and more - nowadays I don't even have 'em clean or gut my purchases. I prefer to take 'em home whole and get the practice. Wife came back from Japan w/ my requested deba hocho, aji saki and wetstones and I'm set. Add the YouTube videos of Japanese chefs breaking down every type of seafood imaginable... and I LOVE me an Asian fish market.

The problem might be that the head-on shrimp at Fresh Farms are $2/lb, and their fish selection, albeit smaller, looked better kept than HMart's. I do intend to keep shopping there, though - their produce section is better, they've got more Asian goods, and if you go on the right days, their fish is still worth it, especially the live stuff.

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

Actually, I was somewhat impressed by the seafood section at Fresh Farms; To my recollection, they had some decent pompano as well.

Get it while we can, cause once the honeymoon's over, it won't be nearly as nice (a la H-Mart, a la Assi)...

(by there I meant H-Mart, which I realize wasn't clear; I've just added Fresh Farms to the rotation, but will visit all my old grocer friends because they've all got something I want)

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

I've got to be a dissenting voice here. Although I shop more frequently at Assi (it's 10 minutes closer), I still prefer HMart.

Now mind you, I don't eat much fish, but I still find the shrimp at H better looking than Assi. It might be the lighting, but I find Assi to not seem quite as clean.

HMart has more depth in what it carries -- more brands of a given thing (especially dumplings) -- but Assi has more breadth: more SE Asian, a better variety of ramen, among other things.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

That does sound great!

I'm the only fish eater at my house and I just buy small things for myself at Mitsuwa. The quality there went down for a while, in my opinion, but it's been fine lately. However, except for mushrooms, wasabi and a few other things, Mitsuwa doesn't touch those others in the produce area.

Made my first visit to H-Mart on Saturday and was really impressed. Among other things, I got some great looking rib eyes for only $3.99/lb! Pretty nicely marbled for the price if you ask me.



Cooked one of them tonight, seasoned simply with fresh cracked pepper and salt in a screaming hot pan with olive oil and butter. Cooked it just long enough to get a nice crust on both sides. Served it with some salad and blue cheese dressing (Yes, I love onions).



Also got some booze while I was there!

Plum wine, soju, rice wine, and beer

Does anyone have an opinion on the best day of the week to buy seafood at HMart?

A friend and I stopped by to check out the fish dept today. We thought about half of the fish products available looked amazingly fresh and beautiful, and half looked old. (I don't mean that individual fish within a type were mixed in age: for example, all the red snapper looked very fresh; all of the catfish looked old).

My guess is that Friday would be a good day for seafood - when the restaurants will want to stock up, and before the weekend crowds. Just wondering if anyone does know if in fact they get most of their fish and seafood in on a certain day of the week.

We greatly enjoyed watching a couple of older Korean ladies use tongs to wrestle live Maryland blue crabs ($0.99/lb! because there weren't a whole lot left) away from their brethren and into brown paper bags. The crabs were so beautiful and lively that I wished I had a plan for something to do with them right away. Instead I settled for watching the show.

Oh, I meant to add that lobsters are now frozen and $4.99/lb.

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"I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

H-Mart weekend kimchee production in full swing.

H-Mart, in-house kimchee

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

A stop at the HMart in Niles has been on my to-do list for a while now, especially since I've been wanting to compare its prices for various pantry supplies with the prices at grocery stores near me. I made a list of things I wanted to get and had already determined that the Garden Fresh Market in Mundelein had easily the best prices among the closest-to-home options (others being Dominicks, Jewel, and Wal-Mart), and the Asian market next to the Yellowfin sushi restaurant in Champaign (across the street from the office). The venerable Am-Ko market in Champaign is still on my list to check out - I used to shop there regularly years ago but haven't been in recently to check on their prices.

In short, on the basis of price, HMart and Garden Fresh were comparable on on soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, rice wine vinegar, dumpling sauce, miso paste, and udon noodle soup mix, and prices at both were better than at any other place I looked. For me this means that for those pantry things I want at the best price, HMart is worth a stop on the way but I don't need to make a special trip for it.

Again, based on price only, I was a little surprised that the varieties of ramen I was looking for cost more at HMart than at Garden Fresh. Was also surprised by the comparison of kimchee prices: cabbage kimchee (compared same brand, I'm pretty sure), 16 oz and 32 oz, $3.89 and $5.89 respectively at Garden Fresh, $4.49 and $5.49 at HMart. I bought the 32-oz jar. Greater kimchee variety at HMart, of course; I also bought a 16-oz jar of radish kimchee.

Of course, on variety, HMart wins hands down in soy sauces, fish sauces, rice wine vinegars, ramens, and udon soup mixes. I was a little surprised to see only three brands of curry mix at HMart (S&H, Vermont, and a brand with all-Japanese labelling, don't know the name, but I've tried it before). I wonder if Mitsuwa carries more curry mixes.

I know HMart is mostly about the fresh produce and the seafood and the meat, but I wasn't shopping for those at the time. (Also wasn't looking to check out the food court options since it was just an hour to dinnertime.) I did, however, buy a package of frozen sliced pork belly @ $3.59/lb. There seemed to be several different sliced pork belly options, fresh and frozen, varying in amounts of fat, it seemed, at various prices, but I didn't have time to study their differences. The $3.59/lb option was the lowest-priced one.

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"I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

summer lobsters have been running $5.98lb almost all summer. They avg 1.25 - 1.35lbs per lobster.

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I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be.