This story first appeared in The Daily Illini.
(Photo by Melissa Pasco)
In downtown Urbana on Broadway Avenue and Vine Street, H Mart stands with its glistening red logo, welcoming neighborhood shoppers into the supermarket.
The grocery store chain is known for carrying a variety of Asian products, from imported snacks to Korean beauty items. However, H Mart is best known for its innovative food court.
Urbana’s H Mart food court features four unique eateries: Jaws Topokki, Cho Dang Tofu & BBQ, Paik’s Noodle and Paris Baguette. Each offers an array of diverse choices, leaving customers with the hard decision of where to eat.
JAWS Topokki specializes in topokki — spicy rice cakes — and gimbap, traditional Korean street food. JAWS also offers deep-fried sets of cheese sticks, shrimp, sweet potato and rice bowls with flavorful protein choices.
For this trip, the JAWS Topokki Soup caught my interest and seemed the best fit as the restaurant’s signature dish. The soup had the traditional red sauce that completes a topokki dish. It was garnished with green onion, a vegetable dumpling, fish cakes and a quail egg.
The rice cakes were soft and chewy. Altogether, the dish had a kick of spice while still being very savory. Each bite was unlike the last, with a hint of sweetness tying it all together.
Next to JAWS stands Paik’s Noodle, a restaurant offering a blend of Korean-style Chinese food. Paik’s offers a variety of noodle dishes that it is famous for, from jajangmyeon, jjamppong and stir-fry.
Keeping with the trend of trying each stall’s signature dish, we tried the vegetable stir-fried noodles. The dish consisted of stir-fried vegetables and noodles cooked in a special oyster sauce. The taste was reminiscent of classic Chinese takeout, carrying that “grilly” flavor typical of dishes made in a wok.
Cho Dang Tofu & BBQ gives exactly what the name says. It is recognizable for its home-style ambience, its famous dishes including silken soft tofu stews and grilled proteins, as well as Korean pancakes.
The vegetable soft tofu soup defines the word “cozy.” It tasted exactly like soups that warm your taste buds with comfort and hospitality on a sick day. There was the soft texture of the silken tofu, crunchy green onions, mellow mushrooms and runny scrambled eggs.
Out of the three restaurant stalls, Cho Dang offered the most sides, with four containers each containing fish cakes, kimchi, cucumber kimchi and pickled radish. All of these added more flavor to the soft tofu stew.
Lastly, to balance out the saltiness of the Asian cuisine, dessert was needed. At the end of the food stalls sits Paris Baguette, a bakery cafe specializing in French-style pastries.
There were lots to choose from. Keeping with the latest internet trend, Paris Baguette highlighted two pastries — the Dubai Chocolate Mochi Donut and the Dubai Chocolate Pizzetta — that were definitely on the must-try list.
The doughnut was light and airy, although lacking that signature doughy flavor that doughnuts have. The chocolate frosting, pistachio cream and kataifi garnish, on the other hand, were out of this world. They definitely improved the taste and texture of the doughnut.
Straight from a dream, the Dubai Chocolate pizzetta delivered everything a dessert should. Flaky layers of custard, topped with pistachio cream, crunchy kataifi garnish and sliced strawberries made each bite unforgettable. This indulgent creation is the standout recommendation among all these offerings.
Pulled straight from an aesthetic Pinterest board, Paris Baguette also had the hockey-puck-shaped croissants seen all over the internet — the Suprême Croissant. The cafe only offered one flavor option: Chocolate Supreme Croissant.
The Chocolate Supreme Croissant fell somewhere in the middle. It looked appealing with its chocolate icing and chocolate crisp pearls garnished at the top. But, the chocolate custard cream filling overpowered its overall flavor. On its own, the croissant was buttery and crispy, but the pastry leaned too heavily on chocolate rather than a balance of croissant and chocolate.
In contrast, the drinks offered a more satisfying experience. The Iced Cookie Butter Macchiato was refreshing and energizing, pairing well with the pastries and the savory dishes. The vanilla and oat milk blended smoothly with the coffee, while the cookie butter added just the right finishing touch to each sip.
Andrea Orozco, a freshman in LAS, frequents Paris Baguette due to its “Instagrammable” pastries. This was her first time trying the cafe’s Pastry Frank, a sausage baked and wrapped in a croissant.
“The pastry was buttery and soft; I would definitely order this again,” Orozco said. “The food court here has an option for anyone. Picky eater or not, you’ll find something worth your calling at any of the food stalls.”
Orozco has also visited other H Mart’s back in her hometown of Chicago. She said the new Urbana location has the same conformity as those back home.
“The food court (here) is a lot bigger, and they still offer the same services as any other location,” Orozco said. “Plus, there’s free Wi-Fi, and it makes a good out-of-campus study spot during a lunch rush or dinner run.”
Edgar Nava is an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a staff writer for The Daily Illini.