Incredibly Cheap Eats: QMart Korean Snacks
A $4 box o'food: Tempura zucchini, spicy pickled green chiles, rice, veggies, omelet
There's an interesting row of businesses on the Horace Harding Expressway, which sandwiches the LIE near the Queens/Long Island border. Bagel Oasis is there, as well as a number of Korean barbecue places and Middle Eastern markets.
Yesterday, stuck in traffic on the LIE, I got off in Oakland Gardens (just northeast of Fresh Meadows) and checked out QMart Asian Gourmet, a very fun Korean supermarket, full of noodles, snacks, produce and tons of kimchi and other banchan (side dishes).
But the real reason to check it out is the market's incredibly cheap and good prepared foods. The lunch box, above, was $4, and contained a tempura zucchini slice, a generous pile of pickled green chiles napped with chile paste (double hot!) and rice moistened with sesame oil, scattered with vegetables and topped with a sliced omelet. I especially liked it when I mixed those incendiary, tart chiles into the rice.
There are also awesome mandoo, the most gigantic ones I've ever seen, actually. They're bigger than my fist and resemble jumbo momos--round, nicely doughy and bulging. The ones I got were filled with chopped kimchi, crumbled tofu and ground pork. Five massive mandoos for $5.99.
Q Mart Asian Gourmet
22112 Horace Harding Expressway
718-428-4748
Yesterday, stuck in traffic on the LIE, I got off in Oakland Gardens (just northeast of Fresh Meadows) and checked out QMart Asian Gourmet, a very fun Korean supermarket, full of noodles, snacks, produce and tons of kimchi and other banchan (side dishes).
But the real reason to check it out is the market's incredibly cheap and good prepared foods. The lunch box, above, was $4, and contained a tempura zucchini slice, a generous pile of pickled green chiles napped with chile paste (double hot!) and rice moistened with sesame oil, scattered with vegetables and topped with a sliced omelet. I especially liked it when I mixed those incendiary, tart chiles into the rice.
There are also awesome mandoo, the most gigantic ones I've ever seen, actually. They're bigger than my fist and resemble jumbo momos--round, nicely doughy and bulging. The ones I got were filled with chopped kimchi, crumbled tofu and ground pork. Five massive mandoos for $5.99.
Q Mart Asian Gourmet
22112 Horace Harding Expressway
718-428-4748
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