The Quintessence of Ham

Long lines, bland sandwiches, mushy pizza. What’s not to like?

My Korean-savvy informant tells me this place is Korean-managed, but they definitely play up the Japanese angle more than most other Japanese restaurants in the area. In addition to the usual suspects, for example, the sushi bar offers “Japanese” mackerel, “Japanese” snapper, etc. They run some mildly exotic specials: spotted sardines were excellent, [...]

There’s an entire aisle of dried seaweed!
This Korean supermarket has excellent (and cheap) produce, live blue crabs, and a freezer section whose vastness is exceeded only by its mystery. They also sell the Chinese black vinegar that keeps Sarah happy. There’s a regular H Mart in Merrifield, but I prefer the “Super H” [...]