H-Mart/Asian Grocery Store Shortcut Items

September 10, 2021 5:05 PM

I'm visiting an HMart for the first time and I'd like to buy convenient Korean grocery items that will give me the feeling of a home-cooked meal while reducing time in the kitchen, such as microwaveable rice, frozen banchan, pre-cut meats, noodle kits, premade sauces & marinades.

I'm staying in an AirBnB in Vancouver that is "well-stocked" by Anglo standards, but may not have some of the basic Asian cooking staples. Since I'm only staying there for a week, I don't want to buy a bunch of items that I'll just end up leaving there, so I'd like to buy things that don't require a lot of extra one-off ingredients. Hope that makes sense! Thanks in advance!

posted by chara to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

Frozen kimchi fried rice isn't bad and requires nothing more than a bowl to prepare, and, at least in the U.S., they carry a couple versions (the smaller one with the red and white packaging is better).
posted by praemunire at 6:14 PM on September 10, 2021

This might not be as convenient as you want, but I like picking up some frozen fish balls, assorted veggies, and noodles to make my own lil soups. The only thing you might need to pack home is bouillon, if the place you're staying doesn't have any.

Prepping is just throwing fishballs and bouillon into water as it heats up, chopping veggies and then adding noodles at the end. It's a nice lil one pot meal and only needs a bit of soy sauce/sesame oil at the end.
posted by crossswords at 7:00 PM on September 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you're only there for a week, I would get banchan from the fresh/fridge section, not bother with frozen. I'm not familiar with H-Mart specifically but the Korean grocery near me also has premarinated meat (like bulgogi beef) which you cook yourself and is fantastic.
posted by Lady Li at 7:43 PM on September 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

The banchan is good; definitely stock up on that. There should be microwavable rice that is actually decent if you don't want to go through the trouble of making your own rice.

Need something even more easy than that? H-Mart should have a refrigerated section where you can pick up stews, soups, and noodle dishes as well. I often stock up on jjangmyun because it's easy and good enough when I don't have the spoons to actually make a meal from scratch. Depending on when you go there may be some other prepared items available (dumplings, pancakes, etc.) - that's more likely on weekends, at least in my local store.
posted by daikaisho at 8:28 PM on September 10, 2021

One of my H-Mart favorites is: Tofu Broth Soup Seasoning Original (3 packets inside; you could take the extra ones home with you) plus the extra soft tofu in a tube (use 1 per packet) plus whatever you would want to add or have on hand: enoki mushrooms, egg, vegetables. Easy sundubu jjigae.
posted by apartment dweller at 8:44 PM on September 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you like spicy food the Dongwon brand of tteokbokki (rice cake in a pepper sauce) is pretty good. It will be in the refrigerated or frozen sections. The versions that are packed like cup-a-soup, whatever brand, are a big step down in quality so avoid them.
posted by plastic_animals at 8:57 AM on September 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh, the soft tofu soup packets that you combine with a tube of soft tofu are also good. Not the equal of restaurant or full homemade but fun to make yourself.
posted by Lady Li at 10:01 PM on September 11, 2021 [1 favorite]