Sorry it's a NYT paywall piece...

quote:

...there are 102 H Marts across the land, with vast refrigerated cases devoted to kimchi and banchan, the side dishes essential to any Korean meal. In 2020, the company reported $1.5 billion in sales. Later this year, it’s set to open its largest outpost yet, in a space in Orlando, Fla., that is nearly the size of four football fields.

And H Mart has competition: Other grocery chains that specialize in ingredients from Asia include Patel Brothers (Patel Bros, to fans), founded in Chicago; and, headquartered in California, Mitsuwa Marketplace and 99 Ranch Market — or Ranch 99, as Chinese speakers sometimes call it. They’re part of a so-called ethnic or international supermarket sector estimated to be worth $46.1 billion, a small but growing percentage of the more than $653 billion American grocery industry.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/dining/h-mart.html

We are so lucky....Mitsuwa is ten minutes away, and I have multiple H Marts and Patel Brothers stores within 20 minutes. Plus a bunch of independent grocery stores that specialize in all kinds of other ethnic groceries....

We are partial to Mitsuwa of course. But that was a great article.

The other greater Chicago store we loved is Caputo's!

sigh. I wish we had a Caputos and a Mitsuwa down here. /sigh

I've been spoiled for Asian markets. Phoenix has a Ranch 99 but they also have the nicer and funner LeeLee's. Here in the PNW, we have Uwajimaya.

quote:

Here in the PNW, we have Uwajimaya

Yeah, don't even get us started on Uwajimaya.... even better than Mitsuwa (also named for Mr. SK's home town...)

Mr. SK had so much fun there!

Y'all make a field trip to Oklahoma so you can assess the quality of our Asian market. It's huuuuuuuuuuugge, many times bigger than any such market I've seen elsewhere.

It probably loses authenticity points because of its pan-Asian focus. The owners are Vietnamese, but I think they try to stock products from many Asian cuisines. The fish market is huge. The produce section is huge, with both Asian vegetables and veggies more commonly seen here. They usually have garden plants for Asian vegetables and herbs, too, so you can grow your own.

Nearby, there's a house with a tall fence all the way around it. You can't see the house, because of the veggies growing on the fence, usually bitter melon in industrial quantities. I like to think that a member of the family who owns the grocery store lives there and grows some of the specialty vegetables.

Just curious...are these Asian markets in urban, suburban or rural areas?

In the Chicago area....

There’s one H Mart in the city and five in the burbs.

Just one Mitsuwa in my fair suburb.

One Patel Bros in the city, four in the burbs.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
I've been spoiled for Asian markets. Phoenix has a Ranch 99 but they also have the nicer and funner LeeLee's. Here in the PNW, we have Uwajimaya.

I have not yet been to 99 Ranch or H Mart. But have you been to Fubonn over on SE 82nd Ave? They have pretty much everything I want, ever.

Unrelated: I just read “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner, mentioned in the NYT article. I was really moved by it. She is half Korean, grew up in Eugene, and her mom died of cancer. Interesting way of working through her grief.

I’ve never been in H-Mart. I’ve been to Mitsuwa’s in Arlington Heights, IL once. Mitsuwa contains a Japanese supermarket and a food court with about ten restaurants. They have a large selection of Japanese food. I went there to buy some dorayakis after having seen the movie “Sweet Bean” (“An”). I knew I had to try one. I think I posted a topic about it here a couple of years ago. A dorayaki is two pancakes with a sweet azuki bean paste filling. It’s probably just a matter of time before someone opens a dorayaki stand selling them fresh.

I'll have to check out that book, AM. I've not been to Fubonn but I should try to check it out in a week (once I'm fully vaccinated).

quote:

I went there to buy some dorayakis after having seen the movie “Sweet Bean” (“An”). I knew I had to try one. I think I posted a topic about it here a couple of years ago. A dorayaki is two pancakes with a sweet azuki bean paste filling. It’s probably just a matter of time before someone opens a dorayaki stand selling them fresh.

Uwajimaya has a stand inside the store where you can buy them freshly made, soooo yummy!!!!

BTW I have been meaning to watch that film for forever... one of these days.

There is an H Mart about a mile from Chez pj and an Uwajimaya another mile or so farther. I have hit H Mart a couple of times. Their vegetables and meat are always good.

The vegetables and meat at Uwajimaya are outstanding. If I'm lucky, I can score a few things in the meat clearance bin; they are usually better quality than the full-price items at the regular grocery store. I guess Japanese and other Asians don't put up with poor quality meat. Of course, the seafood section is amazing, but I don't buy much seafood. And this is at one of the suburban stores. The main store downtown is amazing.

DD wanted a bottle of hot chili oil. Mrs pj and I were at Uwajimaya and walked up and down the spice aisle and didn't see any. It was disappointing and strange. We continued shopping... and discovered that the next aisle over was the hot chili oil aisle. Pretty much an entire aisle of hot chili oil and curry paste.

And you should see the ramen aisle.

And the tea aisle.



We used to shop at Uwajimaya when I was a kid. There was the main store downtown -- a block or two from the current location -- and a satellite store at a mall out in the 'burbs. The one at the mall only sold books and gifts (and a huge selection of origami paper!), but they also had a glass steam case at the cash register with hum bow.

It's an experience.

And the downtown Uwajimaya now has a separate store-within-the-store called Kinokunya that has the books and magazines and stationery. I think that's a separate chain... I saw a Kinokunya in Sydney.


We also have Ranch 99 and several other Asian grocery stores, as well as the tiny stores and shops in the International District.


There is also the quirky DK Market which I think is mostly Indian items. It's like a cross between a souk and Costco. Mostly pallets and piles of boxes and bags of things with little or no English on them. Dimly lit. Low prices. Always busy. And the parking lot is a zoo. It always smells fascinating.

quote:

a separate store-within-the-store called Kinokunya

Kinokuniya is a big chain bookstore in Japan. I think the bookstore in Mitsuwa actually used to be Kinokuniya but now is Sanseido... Or maybe the other way around??

Anyway, Kinokuniya was always my favorite place to go when we visited the "big city" when I lived in Japan. Always multiple levels, best stationary selection of anywhere ever... Sigh. Oh, (in Japan) and they always had a big section of English-language books, back in the late 90s and early 2000s, that was such a lifeline for me! Now it's much easier, and cheaper, to get books from Japan, than it was back then to get books from the US.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
I'll have to check out that book, AM. I've not been to Fubonn but I should try to check it out in a week (once I'm fully vaccinated).

Fubonn isn’t terribly pretty inside, but it’s comprehensive!

Ah, the internet tells me that the current bookstore in Mitsuwa is also a Kinokuniya (so it used to be a Sanseido).

Mitsuwa also used to be called Yaohan Plaza as well....

So, WTG you didn't mention Caputos, do you ever shop there?

Why is it so fun to talk about this stuff???