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Que Huong Market - CLOSED
Category: Ethnic Food [Edit]
Neighborhood: Columbia Heights1454 Park St
(between N 14th St & N Kenyon St)
Washington, DC 20010
- Nearest Transit:
-
Columbia Heights (Green, Yellow)
- Price Range:
-
$
3 reviews for Que Huong Market
First, without Yelp and Jack F's review, I would have never found this place or even considered entering. However, as Jack stated, this is not much of a market, so if you are expecting something even as simple as Hana Japanese Market, you will be disappointed with the selection and quality.
That said, I will be returning to spend more time looking through their vegetables, fruit, and noodles. One visit was only enough for an introduction.
So I decided for my first visit that I would try to get a good look around and pick up a few staples I could identify and then return at a later date with a better plan and list. However, when I got to the back of the store and looked stupidly into the refrigerated display cases of vegetables I could only vaguely recognize, the older Vietnamese lady sitting on the floor chopping greens on spread out newspapers took over.
She took one look at my basket of pathetic dried rice noodles and started filling it with a generous bag of bean sprouts, refrigerated noodles, fresh herbs (maybe Thai basil?), beef broth, fresh greens, and frozen beef (which I put back for a later visit as I wasn't going straight home to freezer). I should add that my repeated nod and "thank you" was the extent of our communication, though the cashier did speak enough English to tell me the tamarind pulp/paste was sold out for this week and that they accepted credit cards.
The lady assisting me then gave me a short tour of the other vegetables and fruit including golf ball size thai eggplant, cucumbers, lychee, long japanese-looking eggplant, ripe papayas, mangoes, and numerous other refrigerated vegetables I will need google to identify.
Some of the display cases were empty. Some things looked like they might have been on the shelf for awhile. Basically, it is a hole in the wall neighborhood market with slim selection, but Que Huong Market has just enough items that are impossible to find outside of Hmart / Lotte / NoVa to make it worthwhile.
Finally, I saw very few labeled prices, but at the register each item seemed to ring up to $1 or $1.50 with a $7.50 total. I plan on visiting again with a better plan and maybe a list. In addition to Hana and Que Huong, now I just need to find a Korean version selling gallon size kimchi in DC.
The place is now closed. A nail shop will take its place in the near future. What a shame.
The Que Houng Market is the last remnant of the once Micro Vietnam ethnic area of the Columbia Heights, before the construction of DC USA and its surrounding gentrification. It's not much of a market with only the meager selection of grocery items, but all the essentials are there - noodles, bullion cubes, canned broths and preserved vegetables. Most of the meat is frozen and even the small assortment of fresh vegetables can be a hit or a miss. This is no H-Mart or Fresh World and chances are that you're better off venturing out to one of those Asian Mega-markets. Still, it's nice to know that the essentials are nearby and inside the Beltway. With the recent opening of Pho 14 two doors down, it's possible the local Vietnamese scene will emerge once again. [Last Visit: April 14, 2009]