Asian super-duper market
Marché Hawaï is an Asian superstore on Pie-IX that bears visiting at least once if you’re a Montrealer who loves to cook with ingredients you haven’t yet tried. In addition to the fresh meat and produce sections, the store has an astounding array of frozen, canned, jarred, and dry ingredients / packaged Asian foods. While you’ll also see some typical North American foods, it’s best not to assume that you’ll find the many brands you see in typical Canadian supermarkets. Marché Hawai might, for example, stock Nabisco cookies and your favorite brand of spaghetti sauce—but don’t count on it.
The best thing about this super-duper market? Prices are generally better than you’ll find at similar, smaller shops in your own neighborhood. For example, the kimchi in the photo gallery below was nearly half the price of an equivalent kimchi product at an Asian grocer we frequent in our own neighborhood. Marché Hawai has been suffering from the ongoing construction on Pie-IX, which may be causing some foods to stay on the shelves longer than usual. This shouldn’t be a problem for most items, but we see that some of the produce could be fresher, and some of the frozen items (especially the less common ones) appear freezer-burned.
Hawaï Photo Tour
Notes from photo gallery
Whole tamarind pods. “Sweet & Sour” is in reference to how ripe the pods are; they become less sour (sweeter) as they mature.
Kilogram containers of cabbage kimchi in the refrigerated section.
A long aisle of nothing but noodles.
Quebec-farmed quail eggs.
Kewpie Mayonnaise, made with egg yolks instead of whole eggs, and apple / malt vinegars in lieu of distilled vinegar.
Fresh bamboo needs to be properly prepared so that you don’t perish from cyanide poisoning.
Frozen bitter leaves from Cameroon are used to prepare ndolé.
Durian (fruit) mochi and Ube (purple yam) mochi: you can buy them at Marché Hawaï or pay 5x the Hawaï price on amazon dot com.
Don’t mistake this item in the frozen section, “Tofu Style Fish”, for tofu shaped like fishes… it’s actually fish pressed to resemble a type of tofu.
The tiniest eggplants you’ll ever see.
Getting to Marché Hawai
The store is only a few blocks away from Gare Saint-Michel — Montréal-Nord, but that’s not helpful unless you want to take a train to go shopping during rush hour. Unfortunately, the nearest Metro station is the final stop on the Blue Line (St-Michel), which is about a 20–30 minute bus ride to and from Marché Hawaï. In other words, a largish shopping expedition to this superstore is best for folks who live in the neighborhood or folks with their own transportation.
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[…] a whole lot smaller than other places we’ve reviewed here like Marché Newon and Marché Hawai. But we often find exactly what we need at the Montreal Korean & Japanese Food store. Enough […]