2025-03-24
29 分钟Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart.
H Mart is a supermarket chain that specializes in Asian food.
The H stands for hanarim, a Korean phrase that roughly translates to one armful of groceries.
H Mart is where parachute kids flock to find the brand of instant noodles that reminds them of home.
It's where Korean families buy rice cakes to make ddeokguk,
the beef and rice cake soup that brings in the new year.
It's the only place where you can find a giant vat of peeled garlic,
because it's the only place
that truly understands how much garlic you'll need for the kind of food your people eat.
You'll likely find me crying by the banchan refrigerators,
remembering the taste of my mom's soy sauce, eggs and cold radish soup.
Or in the freezer section holding a stack of dumpling skins,
thinking of all the hours that mom and I spent at the kitchen table folding minced pork and chives into the thin dough,
sobbing near the dry goods, asking myself, am I even Korean anymore?
If there's no one left to call and ask which brand of seaweed we used to buy.
This is the spork full.
It's not for foodies, it's for eaters.
I'm Dan Pashman.
Each week on our show, we obsess about food.
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