H Mart’s First Cookbook Is a Love Letter to Korean American Food

As a child in the 1980s, Stacey Kwon grew up in the aisles of her father’s small grocery store, Han Ah Reum, in Woodside, Queens. Decades later, that shop has grown into a nationwide chain, responsible for upholding the tradition of Korean cooking in countless households across America: H Mart.

Now, Kwon—the president of H Mart—has released the store’s first cookbook: H Mart: The Cookbook: Essential Ingredients, Techniques, and Korean Recipes. It is as much of a guide to the store as it is a love letter to Korean cooking.

“If there’s one thing I hope readers will take away from this book, it’s an understanding of Korean food,” Kwon tells Vogue. “Food means a lot to Korean people. Food helps us recenter ourselves when we’re feeling lost, sick, even to cure a hangover. It’s our love language. So this is more than just a cookbook; it’s an expression of love.”

For Kwon, the mission behind the book was simple: to help people navigate the store and buy the ingredients to make their favorite dishes. (And to try new ones.)

“The book is set up like an H Mart, organized by aisles, but unless you’re Korean and have been shopping at H Mart since you were little, it can be hard to navigate the store blind, culturally, for things like rice, seaweed,” and more, Kwon says.

For anyone who loves Korean food, it’s an invitation to get acquainted with beloved recipes and the ingredients and tools behind them. Vibrant and detailed illustrations map out the way, from a section about grilling equipment to an overview of Korean herbs. Throughout, Kwon also meditates on memories of and nostalgia for the experience of growing up as a child of Asian immigrants in the United States.

In celebration of the book’s publication, Kwon shared a favorite recipe from the book with Vogue below: braised beef short ribs. “This is my son’s favorite food,” she says. “It’s essentially a Korean beef stew. Kids love kalbi jjim, and it holds up well over time, which means it’s good for leftovers. It’s at every party in our family, a total crowd pleaser. It’s the equivalent of having prime rib. It’s special-occasion food.”

To her, “the dish is all about how nicely you cut the carrots, the radish; it’s the love and care you put into it. Thinking about every single bite. Trimming that meat really well. Gristle and silverskin are not fun to pick through while you’re eating. You want your guests to have a perfect bite every single time,” she says. “It’s time-consuming, but you can make kalbi jjim in a massive vat. There’s never enough.”

Find the recipe below.

Tteok Kalbi Jjim (떡갈비찜)

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Rice Cakes

Serves 6

The main ingredient in this rich beef soup is time. By soaking then slowly simmering the oxtail bones, you get a thick, deeply flavored broth. The only other ingredients this oxtail gomtang needs are a little radish for subtle sweetness, a shower of chopped scallions for freshness, and a nice big pot of freshly steamed white rice to go with.

Ingredients

• 6 pounds (2.7 kg) English-cut short ribs
• 10 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 cup (240 ml) soy sauce
• ½ cup (65 g) garlic cloves (about 20), minced
• ¼ cup (60 ml) mirin
• ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 20 ounces (565 g) Korean radish (mu), cut into 1½-inch (4 cm) cubes
• 2 carrots, cut into 1½-inch (4 cm) pieces
• About 1 pound (500 g) rice cake logs
• 1 bunch scallions, chopped
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Method

1. Rinse the oxtails under cold running water a few times. Place in a large pot or bowl, cover with cold water, and soak for at least 5 hours or preferably overnight to draw out the excess blood. When the water turns pink, discard it, then rinse and drain the oxtails.
2. Fill a large pot about three-quarters full with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the soaked oxtails and boil for about 15 minutes, skimming off any foam or impurities that rise to the surface. Drain the oxtails in a colander, rinse under cold running water, and trim off any remaining clotted blood or excess fat with kitchen shears. Rinse and clean the pot.
3. Return the cleaned oxtails to the pot and add 15 cups (3.6 L) water and the radish. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the radish turns translucent, about 1 hour. Remove and discard the radish. Simmer the soup for about 3 hours more, checking every half hour to skim off any impurities and adding water as needed (see Note), until the broth turns cloudy and the meat on the oxtails is tender and slightly falling off the bone.
4. To serve, place a few pieces of oxtail in individual bowls. Ladle in the hot broth and top with the scallions. Serve with a bowl of warm rice and salt on the side so everyone can season their broth to taste.

Note

You should aim to have about 10 cups (2.4 L) of broth by the end of cooking. If you have less, that just means your broth will have a more concentrated flavor. Simply dilute the broth with water to your desired strength.

Excerpted from H Mart: The Cookbook by Stacey Kwon and H Mart (Artisan Books). Photographs from pages 47, 86-87, 107, 121, 149, 217, 221, 225, and 305 by Heami Lee. Photographs from pages 11, 15, and 17 courtesy of H Mart. Copyright © 2026.