An ode to the H Mart

Earlier this summer, an H Mart opened 20 minutes from my home. And, to my shame, I didn’t step foot in the store until last week.
Not because I didn’t want to visit the Korean grocery store. I desperately wanted to go to H Mart because I’d heard whispers of how marvelous it is from friends. I dreamed of going to H Mart, and more specifically, being the kind of person who knew how to shop at H Mart.
According to its website, H Mart is the largest Asian supermarket chain in America. The stores offer a full line of Asian foods from affordable staples to high-end products. Which sounds like a dream come true for an amateur cook of Americanized Asian food — like stir-fry, drunken noodles, and beef and broccoli — looking to add a little authenticity to my recipe rotation.
In a KSL interview, Sam Reed, H Mart’s grocery manager, noted that the Asian population in Utah has risen in part because of the tech jobs in Silicon Slopes. According to the Census Bureau, the state’s Asian population grew by 50% between 2010 and 2020.
H Mart saw an opportunity in Utah, and Utahns are thrilled that the store is here.
But until last week, I was too intimidated to go. Mostly because I’m not Asian and felt like an imposter. And also I’d heard tales of lines of anxious customers outside the door. These customers, I assumed, knew how to shop at H Mart. They knew what ingredients they needed to pull off a flawless Korean barbecue or hot pot meal. And they probably knew where in the store to find them. If I dared to join the throngs of these wise, all-knowing customers, they would immediately clock me as an Asian food amateur. Or worse, a poseur.
I felt like I needed to know which staples and which high-end Asian products I would need before going to H Mart lest I get overwhelmed. But I also didn’t know which products were available, therefore it was impossible to make a list of the products I would need. I went around and around in this vicious logic circle for months before realizing that I just needed to face my fear and go. I was, in a twist on Michelle Zauner’s popular book, crying outside of H Mart.
Finally, I made my way to the new 108,196-square-foot West Jordan store where K Mart used to be. I brought two of my kids because if I felt like an idiot, I would want company. And because they really wanted to come.
We walked in, past a pristine boba tea shop, and beheld the aisles of new (to us) and exciting foods. Melons I’d never heard of. An entire wall of kimchi. Ramen for miles. All kinds of juice and gummy candies. A seafood wing with live king crabs and lobsters. And hundreds of customers who could not have cared less that a poseur and her kids were in their midst.
My daughters and I slowly wandered through each aisle, imagining the kinds of meals we could make with the hundreds of varieties of rice and sauces. We picked treats for the family members we had left at home. I went from feeling like an imposter to an Asian-food enthusiast — nay expert — in no time at all. Such is the power of H Mart.
We resisted the urge to buy the multigallon vat of kimchi and went with a modest quart instead. We grabbed sushi rice, some paper-thin ribeyes, a melon-flavored drink with floating orbs that reminded me of Orbitz — the drink that was all the rage when I was in fourth grade — some bok choy, some Chinese broccoli, some Filipino cheese chips, some black bean paste, the wide rice Thai noodles that are impossible find in other grocery stores, and some Japanese mango-flavored candy that I’m pretty sure is the best thing I’ve ever tasted.
Aside from a bit of a dustup when my daughter tried to convince me she needed a live lobster to keep as a pet, we had an exceptionally lovely time exploring the store, reading every label, dreaming of the food we might make in the future.
All told, we spent about 90 minutes in H Mart, and spent a relatively modest amount of money considering how many of the skin care products I was tempted to buy and the grill pan that I almost bought but put back on the shelf when I realized the instructions were in Korean. Which I do not read or speak.
But now I know how to shop at H Mart, and when I return soon, I plan to spend twice as much and stay twice as long. Because now I know that H Mart is for everyone, poseur or not.