Baked Sweet Potatoes from H-Mart

H-Mart is a Korean grocery store. They carry a lot of high quality produce, meat and seafood. If you have been in there, you probably have seen the machine for baking sweet potato in the produce section. Baked sweet potato and yam are one of the oldest street food in Asia. There is nothing better than holding a warm baked sweet potato in your hand when the weather gets colder in autumn.

Strength: Sweet potato with fluffy and starchy texture.

Weakness: Can become dry if you eat too much at once.

Other Packaged Dessert

• Brown Sugar Milk Tea Boba Ice Cream Bar (4 Stars)
• Kikyouya Shingen Mochi Popsicle (5 Stars)
• Hokkaido Butter (1.5 Stars)

H-Mart Grocery store

H-Mart often carries a large variety of high quality grocery items. We often swap between T&T or H-Mart for our Asian grocery shopping. Two thing unique to the H-Mart are the baked sweet potato and spin-peel chestnuts.

Baked and kept warm

If you have been to H-Mart, you have probably seen this machine. It has mouthwatering pictures on the machine for advertisements. The bottom portion is for baking. I have seen the staff loading raw sweet potatoes in there. These sweet potatoes release a comforting aroma that is very hard to ignore. It is very hard to resist the urge to grab a bag as snack for the drive home.

Baked potato in paper bag for self serve

After the sweet potatoes are baked, they are put into paper bag and placed in the warm area above for display. The orange bright lights among the produce makes it hard to miss. It is sold by the weight, and customers can open the plexiglass cover to grab the bag they want. The warm sweet potato in paper bag presentation bring back childhood memories for a lot of Asian who are not born in North America.

Dry and flaky exterior

The exterior of the sweet potatoes are quite dry. If you have tried baking sweet potatoes or yam at home, you would know these baked goodies usually have a wet bottom from caramelized sugar. Korean’s baking method is much like the Asian street vendor which allows overall ventilation including the bottom. It has a clean and powdery texture when I hold it with my two hands.

Breaking the treasure

The sweet potato easily breaks apart by simply folding it. You would first notice the golden color interior accompanied by the steam. There is a strong sugary hearty smell that invades my nostril, and I welcome it with a deep breath. My puppy would charge towards me, then look at me with his begging eyes to trade for a piece of my treasure. This wholesome healthy treat is suitable for everyone in the family to enjoy.

Moist and fluffy texture

There must be a genetic code built into human body to make us crave for starch. The soft and moist interior melts in my mouth and release a sweet fragrance. As part of the ritual to taking a bit bite, I like to peel the skin in circular motion and gradually reveal the next layer. When I get to greedy and took on too big of a bite, it could feel like my mouth is glued together. I always make sure to have water around to prevent accident.

604 Food Critic Assessment

The baked sweet potato sold in H-Mart is just a little happiness in a paper bag. For $3.99 per pound, it’s cheap food that everyone can afford. H-Mart is currently the only grocery store that sells it. As winter approach, this healthy snack is going to warm my hands every time I come to shop at H-Mart.