There seems to be a good number of Asian-American parents in this group, so I had a brilliant idea of asking them (and others in the know) for suggestions, in the spirit of other recent threads about food.
I recently discovered an H Mart not too far from us, and was fascinated by the variety. I bought some familiar things like bok choy, mushrooms, roasted seaweed etc. but there was so much more stuff I’ve never seen before, having only been to very small Asian groceries. We love good Asian food but I can only cook limited variety with stuff from regular supermarkets. Recently I had a very good soup in an acquaintance’s house and asked her which spices she used, but she said she used a Vietnamese mix and didn’t know its English name. I took a photo of the herb she used for topping, very interesting and unusual taste.
So if you could give me some advice on what to get, especially veggies, spice mixes and things like this, and how to use them, I’d be extremely grateful. Also which countries or companies have better food safety track record. We like Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine more than Chinese. Indian, too, but it feels even more intimidating.
I personally have found it easier to start with a recipe and find ingredients than to start with a list of ingredients and find recipes, when it’s not a cuisine I cook regularly. Our household mainly cooks Chinese and South Asian - we go out for Japanese and Vietnamese - so I don’t have any recipes to recommend.
I agree, often starting with recipes and going to the Asian market to find the unusual ingredients works. If you like Thai food, importfood.com has lots of recipes and how to videos and the recipes include the specific products. You don’t have to buy the ingredients from them but have an idea what the container or package looks like.
Since H-Mart is first and foremost a Korean supermarket, perhaps you might want to look at Judy Joo’s book Korean Food Made Simple. It’s a bit on the basic side for native Koreans (like my wife) but the book seems ok for the average person. Chances are the H-Mart will have everything in the book.
I was on a business trip in March, and while I was out for dinner one night, saw a grocery store. I often like to purchase a couple of beverage/food items to have in my hotel room. I went in and had never heard of H Mart before so had no idea it was a Korean grocery store. I had so much fun walking down the aisles seeing all the different items - it would have been even better if I wasn’t in a hotel room limited to just a fridge and a microwave! Alas, there is not one near where I live.
What’s in the middle isles? My Korean friend told me H-mart is owned by a former dictator. No idea if it is true or not. It still influenced me and I refrain from going there too often,
For Korean food, Maangchi’s website and cookbook are also a good place to start. An ingredient that has been a great find: Korean ground red pepper. It came in a large bag, so now I have a big jar of it in the fridge. It is milder and more finely ground than the common crushed red pepper flakes, and we use it in and on all kinds of foods. My daughter’s Korean best friend stayed with us one Thanksgiving, and I asked her to pick out some good foods in H-Mart. Some didn’t go over too well (I still have a large package of ramen-like dried noodles with incredibly high-sodium sauce packets - I must figure out what to do with the noodles, at least) but some were hits, like the little bowls of microwaveable rice and the big jar of honey-ginger tea.
Maangchi also has videos in which she tours an H-Mart and explains foods to non-Koreans.
I could use some help in an Indian supermarket. I went in one recently just by chance and mostly bought frozen foods, because I wasn’t sure which ingredients would be useful.
Former South Korean dictator Chun Doo-Hwan is believed to have stashed a substantial amount of illegally obtained money laundered thru H-Mart. These allegations have been denied by the H-Mart CEO, but there are some in the Korean community who do not go to H-Mart because of this. Chun was the US-backed South Korean dictator responsible for the massacre in Gwangju that killed at least 600 student protesters back in 1980. Probably a lot more. An excellent South Korean movie, Taxi Driver, came out last year with the backdrop of the massacre.
Wow, that’s surprising about Chun. I didn’t even know it’s a Korean supermarket.
The problem I have with recipes is that they usually require a number of new ingredients, and then after I cook it once or twice they go to waste. I prefer pointers like “this vegetable is a Chinese staple used in stir-fries, and this is a spice mix that should be mixed with yogurt and used for marinated chicken”. This actually goes for all kinds of food, I kind of like to improvise when cooking.
H-Mart in my area has more Chinese stuff than Korean oddly enough, but the quality of the meat and seafood is way better than Ranch 99, plus there is no nasty smell. A Korean supermarket isn’t authentic if you can’t get garlic stems.
And the funny thing is my local H-Mart has more Chinese employees than Korean. Understandable since it is located on the border of Cupertino/West San Jose.
If I had a choice of getting Asian groceries and price was no object, a well stocked Japanese supermarket would be my choice. Even though the prices are higher, they tend to be cleaner.
Its funny to learn that H Mart has a link with Chun which I did not know before. Anyway, coincidentally, Ranch 99 market is reportedly has a link with the corrupted leader of Taiwan, Chen. So is Asian market a haven for money laundering?
For Asian cooking, certain herbs and spices that can be found in a regular grocery store will suffice.
Cinnamon, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, and basil are common to both Western and Asian cooking. Cilantro (or coriander, it’s the same thing) can be found in a Hispanic grocery.
It’s the odd stuff like star anise and Sichuan peppercorns (which is actually related to a citrus) where you need to make a special trip to an Asian grocery.
It should be no surprise that there are common spices. The spice trade pretty much dominated the global economy up to the 18th century.
The HMarts near me are pretty awesome. I also love the pastry shop - Paris Baguette which they own and is often inside or next door to the HMart. They vary based upon the area. The one in Cambridge is filled with pre-prepared meals you can take home and heat up (busy city location). The one in NJ has a food court, some shops that sell toys, plushes, etc, lots of kitchen appliances (rice cookers, etc.), a huge fish area (everything is alive and swimming around), great produce, and aisles of fun stuff like crazy flavored kit kats. I don’t buy much when I go (produce,tea, or some crazy candy or cookies), but I enjoy looking around. I do find my family is often the only ones in the store who aren’t Asian.
My Asian market has a green leafy vegetables called “u choy”, an easy stir fry or be used it in soup. Wish I could get the seeds and plant them. They also have real baby bokchoy, the ones sold in WFs are way too big to be called “baby”, lol.
Another veggie that I like and very rarely I can buy them from farmer’s market, called “garlic scape”, a very tasty stir fry dish. Can be made by itself or with ground meat.
Our Asian market also sells “purple yam” (actually sweet potatoes?), outside is white inside is purple, just the best tasting sweet potatoes out there. Japanese yams (purplish outside white inside) come second. After eating them, you would not want to eat garnet/jewel yams anymore.
I also buy jackfruits, lychees, longan from there as they are not often seen in the stores I shop and they are delicious.
Agree with the garlic stems/scapes. They are pretty tasty. I will cook them with scrambled eggs. A tip is to blanch them first in hot water before stir frying. If you put them into a frying pan/wok raw, there is a pretty bitter flavor and they tend to be tough and fibrous.
Some Chinese groceries will sell vegetable seeds for the unusual stuff, @makemesmart.
For aficionados of Japanese snacks like Pocky sticks and Meiji candies, Chinese and Korean groceries sell them way cheaper than Japanese groceries. Same with the curry roux blocks and premade stir-fry mixes.
So the main staple that distinguishes Korean dishes from other Asian dishes is of course kimchi. That’s a variety of fermented vegetables that you see served up as little dishes at a Korean restaurant. (The set of dishes is called “banchan”). Most Korean families (including mine) has a special kimchi refrigerator for storing these vegetables. I highly do not recommend storing kimchi in a regular refrigerator - the smell doesn’t go away for a long time. I won’t talk about the fermentation process but it seems pretty easy to do.
Another ingredient common on Korean dinner tables used as seasoning is gochujang, or chili paste. Here’s an example, that you can get in the middle aisles: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004JPW9TC
It’s used similar to how you might use sriracha - on meats, on vegetables, etc. “gochu” means a chili pepper and “jang” means paste. A lot of Korean words derive from Chinese, more on that some other time. (“Gochu” is also a common Korean slang for part of the male anatomy so use the word in the right context). You can also make your own gochujang from dried chili peppers and powders.
There’s a lot of other vegetables used in Chinese cooking. Many of the names I only know by sight and/or in Chinese, I’ll have to figure out their names in English since I’ve never had a need to know the English name.
