In Our Feelings Over H Mart

Known for high-quality, authentic Korean and other Asian fare, the H Mart chain of grocery stores has offered Asian Americans a sense of home and a source for often hard-to-find specialty ingredients since 1982. Thanks to the popularity of K-pop and the overall elevation of Asian culture, the rest of us have caught up with the hype.

With more than 100 locations across the United States, H Mart is the largest Asian supermarket chain in the country, but only seven of them are in Texas, including Austin, Dallas, and Houston. None are here. Yet.

If you’re a fan of H Mart, you already know: Haltom City is getting one soon.

With its array of specialty foods not found in traditional supermarkets, plus food halls where you can try some of everything, the grocery store itself is a destination. That would be enough, but it’s so much more. When an H Mart comes to town, they build a whole shopping center, and the store is surrounded by bars, restaurants, and retail all in the same vein: Asian awesomeness.

Family and Food

In her 2021 debut memoir Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner explores the bond between her and her mom, along with generational gaps, international relationships, and the tension between self-respect and parental expectations. As Zauner developed her music career from Little Big League in 2011 to the better-known indie band Japanese Breakfast in 2013, she had only a year to enjoy her life as a financially struggling yet emotionally fulfilled musician before receiving a call on the road that crushed her. In 2014, Zauner’s mother was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. The musician dropped her plans and moved back home to Eugene, Oregon, to care for her Umma, with whom she had a loving but complicated relationship. Zauner left her emerging music career and her boyfriend Peter on the East Coast. Knowing her father could not endure this uncertainty on his own and wanting to be the one fully present for her mother, Zauner embarked upon a journey that changed and scarred her.

Zauner watches the disintegration of her mother, who was once fixated on beauty and image, leading the daughter to ponder what these images mean and why looking good was important. Wanting to fix, to impress, to heal, Zauner involves herself in every aspect of her mother’s care, using the meticulously collected data of life moments to interpret her own memories of how Umma was raised. After months of setbacks and pain, her mother asks to go to Korea together.

Fulfilling her mother’s wish gives Zauner hope, but it is not a fix for the inevitable. With food, traditions, and rules about food bonding the duo and breaking them apart, Zauner cries every time she enters H Mart after her mom dies.

Zauner gives authentic compliments and criticism to everyone in her life, including herself, revisiting her own behavior as she pushed back against her mother’s rule, attempted to regain her affection, and how it felt to disappoint her in pursuit of her own sense of self. Returning to Korea later, Zauner is able to rebuild relationships with her distant family and learn new, fun tidbits about her mother, including that Umma and Zauner’s aunt Nami sang as the Pearl Sisters and released a 1968 surf-rock earworm called “Coffee Hanjan.” In 2021, Zauner and Japanese Breakfast covered the song on the Japanese edition of the band’s Jubilee album.

Zauner is masterfully abundant in description, from dissecting her mother’s demonstrations of love to the gaps in their relationship and even her sickness as Zauner clings to what she dismissed before of her Korean heritage. As deft as a poet, she lays out all the medical treatments and woe, as well as moments of victory, like when she learns to cook the Korean recipes her mother once made for her. Zauner exposes the complete helplessness of caregiving, sharing cringeworthy details that may be better off private but that make reading them feel real.

The recipes and ingredients, textures and flavors, as well as the memories and images they conjure, are ample and filling. Through this memoir, readers share Zauner’s grief and perhaps a new fever for food, with ingredients measured only by instinct. Food is love, yes, but it is also life, and the moments we build around it are the true definition of soulful nutrition. — Kena Sosa

Tears of Joy

Kool Nails is open seven days — except that they were closed on Easter Sunday. On a recent trip there for my mani/pedi, my nail tech Simon told me the whole family (of said family-owned business) traveled to Carrollton that day to visit H Mart on their much-deserved day off.

“They are opening one here!” we said to each other in near unison.

While dipping my nails in some Just Peachy-colored powder, my new best friend chatted with me about great Vietnamese food, how excited we all are for the upcoming H Mart opening, and the special issue you’re holding in your hands right now. While he had not heard of Crying in H Mart, he laughed at the title and promised to read this article when it hit the stands, although I’m not sure he knew he would be in it.

By two weeks later — because that’s how nails work — I came to my next appointment armed with a list of businesses that may (or may not) be coming to the new H Mart. (It’s the internet, so what’s not to trust, right?) After he picked out my new Minty nail color, he picked some food recommendations from my speculative list. A man after my own heart, three of the five are bakeries or dessert spots.

Along with Carrollton, Mesquite, and Richardson, 85°C Bakery Cafe already has a Tarrant County location in Grand Prairie at Asia Times Square (2625 W Pioneer Pkwy, 972-975-5071). They are best known for their marble taro bread, made with the starchy, tropical root vegetable of the same name. Native to Southeast Asia, it’s widely used in savory dishes, desserts, and bubble tea and lends a lavender color to whatever it’s in. At 85°C, it’s also in a tasty-looking blended frozen treat. Other top-selling drinks include the signature sea-salt coffee and black sesame latte. Popular savory options include the pork sung bun and garlic cheese bread.

Hui Lau Shan, specializing in mango desserts like their famous mango chewy balls — or as Simon put it, “Mmm, mango!” — opens Thursday at noon (yes, as in May 7) in the new H Mart Plaza in Haltom City at 3980 NE Loop 820 (682-224-3128). The first 20 people will receive a complimentary shopping tote.

We’re also supposedly getting another Tous les Jours. This French-Korean bakery already has a Tarrant County location in Colleyville (5611 Colleyville Blvd, Suite 120, 682-325-4083). Must-try items include the light and airy “cloud” cakes and donuts, plus savory items like kimchi croquettes and curry puffs.

Simon also perked up at the mention of the possibility of two Fort Worth staples, Hanabi Ramen & Izakaya (3204 Camp Bowie Blvd, 817-420-6703) and Sushi Axiom (four area locations), opening at H Mart in Haltom City. For official updates on the incoming businesses, keep an eye on the Haltom City Civic Alerts page at HaltomCityTX.com/m/newsflash/. More to follow in the coming weeks or months, as it may be the fall before the shopping center’s official grand opening. — Elaine Wilder

Nailed It

As I get my nails done every two weeks, look for more #SimonSays recommendations in future Ate Days columns. In the meantime, I also have a movie suggestion for you. Have you ever wondered why most nail salons are Vietnamese-owned? The answer is Tippi Hedren.

Yes, the old-timey star of Hitchcock’s The Birds and her manicurist started the cultural juggernaut of the Vietnamese people doing nails. As the story goes, in 1975 she visited a group of Vietnamese refugee women at California’s Hope Village. They were part of the first wave of immigrants from Vietnam allowed to come to the states as their husbands had helped the U.S. military. The women were in desperate need of work to support themselves in their new country.

During her visit, the women were fascinated by Tippi’s nails, so Hedren decided to fly in her personal manicurist, Dusty Coates, to teach them how to do manicures. These 20 newly licensed nail techs laid the foundation for Vietnamese-American dominance in the nail industry.

Hedren maintained close ties with many of the original women she helped, and her work is highlighted in the PBS documentary Nailed It (streaming on TUBI).

ABC News says the industry remains a major path to success for immigrants today, and many nail technicians in the states are children or grandchildren of those original women. Recent changes to the rules governing professional licenses and the immigration documentation required to obtain them in Texas could profoundly impact this community (“Texas Professional Licenses,” Texas Tribune, Mar 24, 2026). — Elaine Wilder