August 30, 2005
Say What Mart?
Everyone knows that one of the great advantages of living in a large city is the food scene. While we enjoy sushi, perfectly cooked meats with pan sauces, and culinary influences from around the world, we pity our friends far outside the Beltway who, save for a few hidden gems, only have a Lone Star Steakhouse and Chi Chi’s to choose from. Not only can we choose from hundreds of establishments, with character, charisma, and plenty of foodie flare, but we also can select which cultural influence we want for our dining experience. There are those who think Chinese and Mexican are the only foreign foods, but we know differently and are treated to Thai, Ethiopian, Indian, Afghan, Pakistani, Caribbean, Russian, Irish, English... and the list goes on.
The Food Network has also stepped up to the plate, serving up television chefs who entice us with creations from all corners of the globe. Watching our favorite TV persona easily whip up spicy tuna rolls and miso soup, it is impossible not to be inspired. We can not only dine out for these treats, but now we can see the possibility of making them in the comfort of our own homes. But fresh wasabi, miso paste, pickled radish? Where can we find these ingredients? Enter the second greatest reason to live in a major metropolitan area: the ethnic grocery.
For almost every ethnic restaurant the D.C. area can conjure up, there is a corresponding grocery hidden somewhere. Usually small, dimly lit and narrowly marketed, these stores offer terrific bargains and hard to find ingredients. While traversing markets from Falls Church to Silver Spring, DCist found ingredients as common as cumin and as crazy as cockroaches in a wide variety of grocery aisles.
The Super H Mart (thanks to reader for the correction) in Falls Church, however, is in a league of its own.
Soy sauce comes in more varieties than most people can can possibly comprehend; fish sauce and other condiments stretch for aisles; and then there's the meat and seafood. H Mart has one of the most undeniably diverse meat and seafood selections in the area. If Safeway has it, it's guaranteed to be found here, right beside hundreds of exotic specimens. Beef tongue, pork tongue, duck tongue, heart, liver, stomach, feet, and every other organ meat are neatly packaged and labeled for your shopping pleasure. No holds barred in seafood as well, with whole fish of many varieties, crabs, mollusks, and on and on. Some more interesting creatures include abalone and whole eel, and you owe it to yourself to check out a live conch as well.
If you are interested in food and you find yourself at the corner of Lee Highway and Gallows Road, take the time to check this place out. If you're interested in learning to cook Asian foods, this will prove to be a great place to procure your hard to find ingredients. Visitors should definitely pick up a large bag of rice, some assorted condiments (don't forget some tamarind) and, if you don't have one already, a carbon steel wok from the housewares department. Other items we've only seen here include dried seafood, fresh wasabi, miso paste...oh we've gone on enough! Turn off your computer, head out to Falls Church, and start exploring. Any true foodie won't regret it.
H Mart
8103 Lee Hwy.
Falls Church, VA 22042
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Some more interesting creatures include abalone and whole eel, and you owe it to yourself to check out a live conch as well.
Would it be Philistine of me to say ... gross?
Could anyone out there recommend a grocer that caters to indian cuisine and ingredients?
There's tons of them around. Here are helpful links for Virginia and Maryland. No really good ones in DC. I like ISP in Langley Park, personally, but get my meat from farmers markets.
Only the store in Fairfax is a Super H-Mart. The store in Falls Church/Merrifield is just simple an H-Mart. There is also an H-Mart up on Georgia Avenue in Wheaton, north of downtown.
Although the prices can't be beat by H-Mart. There is also a great Japanese store on Arlington Rd in Bethesda nearly Brandly Blvd. and one in "downtown" McLean down that little dead end street between the Cingular Store and the Boston Market. It's around back. They both have a nice selection of quasi-legal VHS tapes of Japanese TV shows and movies, too. If that's your thing.
Oh and Kanishka -- the thing about H-Mart is they are sort of pan-ethnic (primarily, Korean, Japanese and Chinese) but there is a decent selection of Indian food there. And plenty of Indian consumers. GrandMart in Seven Corners also has a pan-ethnic selection as well.
Thanks DC1974 -- it's been corrected.
hey-- thanks for the post! i'm from a certain part of california where, once inside, america becomes a kind of non-operative concept. kind of cool. but, i beg to differ with you on the "large city great food diversity part" -- esp for DC, where, really, to get , say, GREAT korean food, you'd have to leave the district, get on that beltway, or whatever it's called, and drive til your eyes run dry, just to get some decent bbq beef :/
Dan, the Washingtonian reviewed a bunch of Indian groceries (and restaurants) last year.
Don't forget that your "friends far outside the Beltway" often have nicer kitchens in which to prepare home-cooked meals, which beats any restaurant fare any day. They also have grand, clean supermarkets with speedy service and nice produce. And, when they want food, they can find unpretentious, inexpensive food--I can't find cheap breakfast fare anywhere downtown.
There is life outside the Betlway...
Does Stoney's do breakfast?
Stoney's does do breakfast, but according to an article in the Post yesterday. It's closing after 37 years. Seems the building has been sold to some nonprofit working for children. Like children need another nonprofit.
(Oh, and above that note about the Indian groceries was for Dan, I skimmed really quick and missed who wrote what...)
That article is why I brought it up. I've only been once but loved it. Will have to go back before its gone. I love dives.
So there is cheap brekkie in the district....but for how long?
Yeah. I'm a fan of dives too. How about the Florida Avenue Grill? Not that it's downtown. But it is within the boundaries of the old City of Washington.
Instead of muzak, the Han Ah Reum in Wheaton also happens to play mostly cheesy 80s music like Wang Chung, Swing Out Sister, Level 42, etc. It just adds to the overall awesomeness of the place.
A little further down Gallows Road (which runs parallel next to the shopping mall where H Mart resides) is a new Asian grocery store called Great Wall, which I think stocks mostly Chinese products.
why are theses things so far away, you have to go to Wheaton, or the far end of falls church/fairfax to get to these places. Here is a tip for you guy who stick around in the city. There are little helado carts rolling around on Columbia Road between 16 and 18th street. Not a Asian grocery store but equally as fun
Olive:
It isn't really cost effective to have a big specialty store inside DC when most of their customers live on the Virginia side of the Potomac (huge Korean population in Annandale and Fairfax).
For those of you looking for great Korean food near the district, I highly recommend Woo Lae Oak in Pentagon Row.
The Super H Mart in Fairfax ownz. See my attached review. It's not only a grocery, but features a handful of lunch counters. The store's selection is amazing and it's music, as DC1974 noted, is great. There's nothing like shopping for mud snails and mochi while The Clash plays in the background. My only gripe is that they don't carry Rufina patis. What's up with that?
There used to be a modest Chinese grocery store right in Chinatown (surpise). It was vacated and is now an Orange (as in Vincent) run campaign office. There are now fewer options for true urbanites (who actually rely on public transportation as primary means). Suggestions for other accessible grocers in the city?
Also, the Columbia Heights Giant has some of the fewest "ethnic" friendly aisles, even considering the mix of people the neighborhood. What's up with that?
I used to love shopping at this H Mart in Merrifield, but the last few times I've been in there, have left me sad. The produce is not what it used to be, there are flies everywhere. Most disgusting is the flies in the fruit that has gone bad and they won't remove it. This store is unsanitary and unhealthy to be in. It really pains me to write this but it's so true.
That sucks, but at least you can just drive a couple miles down Route 50 to Grand Mart. Much fresher produce and seafood there.