May Recap

Published June 2, 2024

I’ve heard about the American chain of Asian supermarkets called H Mart, but never visited one before. I knew there was one in Edison, New Jersey, and was surprised to find that there was one in Paramus as well. So for my May monthly highlight, my boyfriend and I decided to visit H Mart Paramus.

 

H Mart Paramus

H Mart Paramus is across the highway from the Garden State Plaza Mall. It is on the end of the shopping center with a massive parking lot.

We grabbed a cart and started on the left-hand side of the store, past the rows of cash registers and a separate food stall with baked goods and pastries. We started with the refrigerated and frozen foods, walking past the open shelves of mochi, pastries, and sweet breads.

As a foodie, I heard that the milk breads were amazing, so I selected a rolled bread that was filled with caramel and cream. I had it with my coffee the next morning. It was chilled, light, and reminded me of pound cake with the subtle richness from the caramel.

We also bought a single serving of mango mochi and it was divine. The pillowy mochi with the juicy mango was incredible. I would definitely try their other single-serve mochi from this section.

Frozen Foods

Frozen cases and open containers had dumplings, kimbap, premade stews and dishes, and savory noodles. There was even a station that allowed you to sample one of the brands of vegetable dumplings. The other side of frozen cases had ice creams, popsicles, and frozen ice cream mochi.

Soup Bases, Noodles, and Pickled Products

We wandered through every aisle, including those with refrigerated soup bases, pickled vegetables, and fresh and dried fish.

While I was tempted to buy some of the frozen dumplings and soup bases, we wanted to wait until the end of our shopping trip to purchase these items, so that they would stay chilled for the drive home.

Drinks

We selected several unique drink flavors and spent a while reading the ingredients of bottles that caught our attention.

The branding on the cans of flavored milk caught my eye, and another customer — who said she drove several hours from Pennsylvania to visit H Mart — also grabbed a can to try.

I selected the sparkling sweet peach drink and one of the Curiosity Cola’s — which reminded me of the sodas we had at Tino’s Artisan Pizza Co.

We wandered through all of the interior aisles, which included sauces, ramen, dried noodles, and rice, candies and snacks, cookery, and dried teas and coffees.

I grabbed a black truffle ramen to try and some of the specialty Kit Kat flavors.

Fresh Produce

The back right-hand side of the store had fresh fruits and veggies, which were well stocked and organized. A wide selection of fruit like durian, dragon fruit, jackfruit, specialty strawberries, lychee, and various mangos were available.

Around the corner was an entire section of kimchi, premade dishes, and packages of seasoned meat. It reminded me of the hot pot meat we got at V-Yan. H Mart seemed like the perfect place to get ingredients to make hot pot at home.

I was dying for onigiri, so we grabbed a spicy crab and spicy tuna and added it to our cart.

Fresh Seafood and Protein

The last section to explore was the back wall of the store, which had sections of fresh cuts of meat and chicken.

On the right, cases had frozen packages of shelled clams and mussels, and wrapped pieces of tuna and sushi-grade fish.

Packages of fresh fish lined the walls leading to the seafood counter, where fresh whole fish laid on ice and customers could order fresh scallops, crab, and more.

I was impressed with the variety, quality, and prices. We didn’t select any seafood or sushi from nearby, but I would love to return to try some in the future.

H Mart Food Court

After checking out and dropping some of our groceries in the car, we went over to the “food court” area.

A vendor for ramen and fresh onigiri sat closest to the entrance. Then there was a red stall for Korean fried chicken. I didn’t get a picture of the fried chicken stall, but they offered various cuts of chicken and tossed in your selected sauce. We ordered boneless chicken thighs with soy garlic sauce. We were told it would take about 17 minutes to prepare.

Mochinut

The next food stall took up three or four spaces compared to the other offerings. It was called “Mochinut” and it had a menu for Korean corn dogs, mochi donuts, and bubble tea.

We placed our order at the window and received a receipt with our number.

We claimed a four-top table in the center of the room. Brick walls decorated with artistic graffiti separated the dining tables and food court from the fresh produce and grocery store. We sat across from the Mochinut neon signs. The last stall in the back corner also sold ramen and other warm dishes.

Korean Corn Dogs

I’ve never had Korean corn dogs before. Mochinut offered original corn dogs, potato, hot Cheetos, regular Cheetos, crispy ramen, and “half and half” which is any of the above with half mozzarella and half hot dog, or entirely mozzarella with no hot dog. They ranged in price from $4.99-$7.49 depending on your flavor and fillings.

As a food blogger, I’ve seen most of the Korean corn dogs with mozzarella, so I selected the “Potato half and half.” My boyfriend ordered the “Crispy Ramen Original.” 

Our corn dogs arrived first. They were piping hot and you can see how crispy and golden they were. My potato corn dog was crispy, yet light with the potato coating. It was somewhat sweet with a corn dog style flavor. I loved the mozzarella texture and flavor combination, though the other half that was hot dog was just as good and made the flavor more savory.

My boyfriend’s ramen corn dog had a crunchier texture. It didn’t have a ton of flavor, but the fried noodles reminded me of a funnel cake batter. My boyfriend wished he did the half and half with the mozzarella too. Mochinut offered mustard and other sauces on the side to add to your corn dog as well.

Bubble Tea

Our bubble teas were prepared quickly. Mochinut offered coffee, Thai tea, ube, brown sugar, matcha, and milk tea flavors for $6.95.

Mochinut has great branding. I loved the tall, narrow cups (which were a hard plastic that looked like glass). This was my first time receiving a bubble tea with a soda-can top.

My boyfriend ordered the brown sugar bubble tea — which was surprisingly too sweet for me, though I’ve had it in the past. The Thai tea bubble tea was the perfect amount of sweetness for me, with the distinct Thai tea flavor. Plus, we both had a good amount of boba.

Korean Fried Chicken

Our number for our order rang. We received a brown bag with paper plates, plastic forks, and our takeout box of chicken.

Since these were chicken thighs, they were two times larger than normal nuggets. This was a large portion for $15.00 and had an ASMR-worthy crunch. The chicken was juicy, tender, and still steaming from the fryer.

I enjoyed the flavor, though after a while I felt the sauce was a bit spicy. Luckily, the pickled radish cubes helped cool and refresh my palate. Next time I would order the honey garlic sauce.

Mochi Donuts

The last time I had mochi donuts was during our visit to Boston, so I was excited to try the mochi donuts from Mochinut.

Each donut was $3.15 with flavors such as: Plain, churro, original, strawberry, mango, peanut butter, ube, Nutella, cookie monster, Oreo, Vietnamese coffee, cheesecake, and matcha.

We picked the strawberry and cheesecake mochi donuts. Between the two, I think the strawberry had the best flavor. The cheesecake flavor was pretty good, though I think the icing had an odd texture. Next time I would try the Vietnamese coffee or the mango flavor.

Overall, it was a fantastic visit to H Mart Paramus. I was excited to purchase their unique ingredients, drinks, and snacks from the grocery section. I loved trying the different food stalls on the food court side, and we had a delicious lunch. I plan to return to try even more of their offerings.

What’s your May Highlight?

Do you have a favorite activity, adventure, or highlight from May? Tell me about it in the comments below.

If you’re looking for other New Jersey restaurants and activities to do, click here to read my other New Jersey posts, on the blog.