H-Mart ... the greatest place on Earth

Here in Boston, there are a limited number of Korean supermarkets and restaurants. To be honest, the Korean restaurants here are less than memorable, and all too often leave me in a state of deep longing for GOOD Korean food. The supermarkets are largely small mom-and-pop type of stores, with a limited selection of all products (although I do try to support my local businesses!).

Until now! Finally, the long-awaited H-Mart has arrived to the Boston area! This New Jersey-based Korean supermarket chain has locations all over the country, many of which I have patronized. However, Boston was lacking in a Korean supermarket of this scale. Sure, we had a few relatively large Chinese supermarkets, but (no offense to anyone...) they generally are smelly and dirty.


This H-Mart just opened on Friday, Sept 25th, and D and I went right away after work!! It was super crowded, the parking lot was overflowing into the adjacent lots, and that store was packed to the max with people. I was thinking to myself, "Where did all these Korean people come from? Where were they in hiding??" This place is huge (51,000 sq feet), shiny, bright, new, fresh, GLORIOUS!!!!


Of course, there is a little food court in the supermarket, including a bakery/cafe with delightful baked goods.


There are also several Korean food stands, a Japanese stand, and an Indian food place too. There is limited seating, and it was quite chaotic on opening day, but this may be a place I frequent regularly from here on!



And check out the kimchi selection!! Kimchi of all types, sizes, quantities, in all its spicy, pickled, stinky glory.


And, the vast selection of panchan! So much to choose from, so many different sizes available! I am in heaven.


And of course, being opening day, there were samples galore. You could definitely have made a meal out of all the samples they were offering that day.


I did some shopping, and had some friends over for a Korean meal! I will be posting more about that later...

WELCOME TO BOSTON, H-MART!!

My apologies...

My dear friends.
I have been absent not only from posting, but from reading and commenting on your posts. Forgive me!

Thailand was memorable... in some ways good, and in some ways not-so-good. Overall, the food was good, but sadly not as exciting as I had expected. There were some things I was afraid to eat (i.e. uncooked veggies/fruits, anything from street vendors), and other things that were no better or different from Thai restaurants here in the U.S.

Here are some highlights!

May I say, first, that during our layover in Tokyo, we were pleasantly surprised at the delicious airport food! We Americans are so accustomed to airport meals that are tasteless, pre-frozen, and un-appetizing. But those Japanese, man do they know how to do airport food!! We had ramen, una-don, and tuna-don. Just delightful!! Especially a nice break from airplane food.


Several nights, we stayed with the family of a good friend of ours, and they were so good to us in the food department. The first meal upon our arrival around midnight was simple, but so wonderful and tasty... satay, crab fried rice, and of course, Thai Coca-cola.


There were also many fresh seasonal fruits, like these rombutan (I think that's what they're called)... I loved these sweet little things!!!


Our first breakfast was nothing like an American breakfast (where's the oatmeal?). It was a DELICIOUS green papaya salad (I MEAN, REALLY DELICIOUS), rotisserie chicken, beef satay, broiled fish, fresh squeezed orange juice, STICKY RICE!! It was a delicious, albiet heavy, way to start the day.


We also had some iced coffee and tea at our friend's cousin's coffee shop, and I just loved how they put their drinks in these little paper bags. Maybe for the condensation? It is VERY hot and humid there. The best part -- these drinks were no more than 35 baht each... about US$1!!


We went to a great outdoor (translation: mosquitoes) seafood restaurant one night, and although I was a little anxious about having seafood in Thailand, it was really great!! We had really tasty shellfish, fried whole fish, and the list goes on and on.


But no, we did not have any of this:



We also went down to the small island of Koh Tao. I only took one food picture here (gasp!), but it was really great! D had this grilled whole fish (fresh red snapper), and they put this interesting sauce on it... but it was mighty tasty!!


Other than food... here are some snaps from the trip...




More food later!