HT Market : Not Just For Asians!

White people. They so often disappoint me, culinarily speaking. I find most of my fellow white Americans to be saddeningly unadventurous when it comes to trying new types of food. Take HT Market, North Seattle’s relatively new Asian grocery, for example. I wander endlessly up and down the vast aisles of this large supermarket, fascinated by the food I’ve never tried and often never heard of, skipping quickly by the generic “American food” aisles and heading straight to the foreign stuff. I will usually go in for a báhn mì and a can of coconut juice and end up with a basket overflowing with new things to try. I can’t help it, everything here looks good to me! I look in the baskets of the Caucasian shoppers, however, and am confounded to see Kraft Singles, Yoplait Yogurt, milk, white bread. I don’t see how they can resist the exotic bounty at their fingertips. “Egg tart? Pickled radish?” they must be thinking. “Naw, I’ll just stick to my block of cheddar and box of Oscar Mayer.” It boggles the mind, it really does.

The new(ish) HT Market is an offshoot of the Vietnamese Hop Thanh grocery in Little Saigon. When it opened its doors earlier this year I nearly jumped for joy. I had been hoping and praying for a Southeast Asian grocery somewhere closer to my neck of the woods than the ID or White Center, and like a gift from above my prayers were finally answered. HT Market is all that I could have hoped for. Located in the Oak Tree Village, in the space vacated by the flagship Larry’s Market, the grocery is a convenient jog up Aurora. Parking is plentiful and free (take that Chinatown!) and the store itself large and spacious. It’s not big on ambiance, though, and has a bit of a warehouse feel with its exposed metal beams and hanging fluorescent lights. It feels a bit incomplete and unfinished, like it is still under construction. The aisles are wide and brightly lit and have the potential to house so many more types of food. There are two aisles, for instance, dedicated to packaged ramen. Sure, there are a quite a few types of ramen out there, but two aisles seems a bit excessive. Likewise I could do without the aisles of American chips, soda and frozen food. More interesting are the areas of the store containing African, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Latino food. Huge blocks of queso fresco and cotija can be purchased alongside boxes of saag, Catholic votives are nestled in amongst fabric softeners and frying pans. HT Market may be Vietnamese, but it doesn’t seem to want to pigeonhole itself. In a city becoming so homogenized and yuppie it is nice to see such an embracing of ethnic diversity.

The bakery boasts fresh baked bread from the Macrina and An Xuyen bakeries as well as most of the Chinese pastry standards: egg tarts (my favorite), hum bow, sweet rolls, sponge cake filled with cream. The deli case offers lunch combos for $3.99-$4.99, and this includes rice, chow mein or fried rice, 2-3 sides, and soup. They have pre-made báhn mì (the delicious, delicious Vietnamese sandwich) and two-packs of summer rolls for $2.50. Fish-filled tanks are on display in the seafood department and packaged squid and eel in the frozen food section. The produce is a little sad looking, with noticeably wrinkled peppers and green tomatoes, but is redeemed by several types of seaweed, cactus, daikon, and bulk chiles. My favorite is, of course, the dessert aisle. I have recently become addicted to a type of Chinese jelly candy, little rectangular objects that come in a pack of eight, in either green tea or sweet bean flavor. There’s the usual selection of coconut juice, Thai ice tea and the like, and a small sake selection in the wine department. This is nothing too thrilling; if you want a large variety of sake go to Uwajimaya or another Japanese grocery. In a back corner of the store is a nice selection of pretty dishes and bowls to be had for cheap. If you are looking to outfit your kitchen and are on a budget this is the place to come.

I hope that, with time, HT Market will continue to expand its food selection and utilize more of its empty space. And it may be a fool’s hope, but I would also like to see the non-Asians of the neighborhood sample from the wealth of good food to be had here. At least give it a try.

HT Market Oaktree

10008 Aurora Ave N

Seattle, WA 98133

(206) 527-5333

Meridian Market, Where Have You Been All My Life?

The long awaited and much anticipated Meridian Market has finally opened its doors in the not-quite-Wallingford, not-quite-Greenlake neighborhood of Tangletown. Given that very few people seem to be aware of the moniker Tangletown (“you live where?“) I halfway suspect it to be an elaborate hoax, someone out there snickering that this silly word is making its way into our collective lexicon. The Meridian Market, however, is quite real and has been quickly embraced by a neighborhood lacking in any kind of grocery save the 50th Street Deli, a place perhaps good for a pit stop but not for any kind of realistic meal. When I mentioned my excitement to the friendly, laid-back cashier at the Meridian Market he said “yeah, a lot of people have been saying that. Excited for a grocery store?” Heck yes! The anticipation over this place has been mounting steadily over the past year as the building came to look more and more like a finished product. The owners, who also have the quietly successful Phinney Market on 60th and Phinney Ave N, could not have picked a better spot. Nestled under an apartment complex just across the street from the always crowded Zoka coffee and kitty corner from the Tangletown Brewery, the location was ripe for a grocery.

I stopped by around 10:00 on a Thursday evening the week of the store’s opening. I found the place to be adorably small, well-lit and warmly inviting. The Doobie Brothers crooned soothingly from somewhere overhead and a few late-nighters trickled in and out. There was an air of newness and subdued excitement. The deli was closing up shop but the store itself was open for another hour. For its size the place is very well stocked with upscale options: a case full of fancy cheeses, sushi, pre-made salads, very fresh, crisp produce (mangoes! Pineapple!), baguettes, a nice wine selection with hand-written recommendations, sake (including my favorite, Yaegaki Nigori! Hooray!) and a good selection of top-grade chocolate, very important. The focus seems to be on quality, not quantity, which is something I can get behind. The only thing I was really disappointed by was the lack of a good chèvre. I wandered about for a bit and was not challenged by anyone even though I must have looked suspicious with my slow meandering and copious note-taking. This seemed to fit in nicely with Meridian Market’s attitude of casual acceptance.

As I made my way home with my California Rolls (Sushi Master, $4.49 for a box of eight—pretty tasty, although a bit skimpy with the fillings) and recommended wine (Carchelo, a Spanish red, said to be “fruity and lively”, $9.99), I breathed the satisfied sigh of one entering a long and glorious relationship.

Meridian Market
2201 N 56th St
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 547-5940
open daily from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm