The "H" stands for "Holy cow!"

I was googling around to see if there were any places in Denver that sell bento stuff (shut up. I am not obsessing on it), and saw a mention of H-Mart. It's over in Aurora, east of Denver, and has been there four years, but this is the first I've heard of it. I usually do my Asian shopping on the west side of town, which tends more toward Vietnamese. (H-Mart is Korean, though it covers all the Asian bases, plus Hispanic and some Middle Eastern.) The place is huge.

They have lots of greens:
Including bac ha (which you may recall me wondering about after my visit to the Berkeley Bowl). Good to know I can get it here and don't have to beg White on Rice Couple to send me some.
There's also burdock and banana flowers. I took note of the burdock because I saw a recipe recently from Habeas Brulee that I want to try. But what do you do with banana flowers?

There was, of course, the obligatory durian. Frozen so it doesn't stink up the whole store. I confess, I've never eaten it. Should I buy one to try? What should I do with it? Eat it straight or try to cook with it? Maybe make durian ice cream?

I also did not get the sweet tamarind, which I saw a post about the other day on Lunch in a Box. Wherein it is called "poop fruit" by the 3-year-old taste tester.
There are some things there I will have to research. What the heck are Job's Tears?
The store has a lot of convenience foods, including one I'm sure I will return for: ready-to-grill bulgogi, both beef and pork.
If you like kimchi, you can buy it in small containers or several pounds' worth.
Among the prepackaged foods were delicacies such as octopus. Which I really like, but it was a little too expensive.
They had regular snails and these larger ones, though I wonder about the "cooked" part. Why cooked? Why not fresh?
The produce here wasn't all that great, really, but the seafood just goes on and on.
And on and on.
The prices are really cheap, too. Isn't monkfish supposed to be expensive?
And the shrimp! I'm going back for the shrimp, at these prices.
And maybe one of these days I'll cook goat, too.
The store also has some kitchen goods, but the selection is just a hodgepodge and not very comprehensive.
But wait! There's a "shopping mall" inside the store, too. There's a massage place, sushi restaurant, Verizon store and Western Union, a quilt store, a gift shop ...
I picked up the Hello Kitty chopsticks. And then I put them down again.
I did get a lot of good stuff!
H-Mart has a lot of buy-one-get-one-free specials and other sales.

• Two big packages of organic soba and somen noodles.
• Grapeseed oil was $8, which is cheap! I like it because it has a very high smoking point.
  
• Fermented black beans (because I still plan to make Steamy Kitchen's Steamed Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce one of these days.
  
• Cheap fennel! (99 cents.)
  
• Kinda wilty yu choi, but I've been craving some.
  
• Dumpling wrappers. Must make jiaozi.
  
• Water chestnuts! I haven't had fresh ones since China. They were my long-distance-bus-ride snack.
  
• Pomegranate molasses. From Lebanon. Go figure.
  
• Yasai Fumi Furikake and Goma Shio Furikake, which are seasonings for rice balls or french fries. The former has sesame seeds, carrot, spinach, pumpkin, celery, Japanese mustard plants, potato starch, sugar, salt, and seaweed. The latter is just salt and roasted sesame seeds. (Oh! I forgot to upload a photo of the Pokemon furikake. I'm guessing it's little packets of seasoning to go in kids' lunchboxes. If you know for sure, please tell me!)
  
• Coconut milk and coconut cream, for making sweet rice. I'm going to put some mango in it.
  
• Rice.
  
• Beautiful radish sprouts.
  
• Mandarin oranges.
  
• Kewpie mayonnaise. I was all out!
  
• Puffed rice things that are a good snack. (Is there a specific word for these?)
  
• Last, but not least, a BOGO purchase of Lotte ChocoPies. Think mallomars, but with less marshmallow. I've already eaten four.

Total cost: $47. The spices, molasses and the grapeseed oil were the most expensive items, but they also last a long time. The perishable stuff was all pretty cheap.

Guess I can get a bento lunch or two out of it!