Hema Supermarket Offers a Taste of the Sea
God only knows how we survive without succulent, live seafood in Beijing. We try to justify it by saying we're landlocked, but life really is too short to be eating mediocre seafood. We want to be enjoying the top-notch stuff. Once again Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma has come to the rescue, bringing boatloads of seafood from China and around the world to the capital with his innovative Hema Supermarket. Its Chinese name, HeMaXianSheng is clever, fun, and easy to remember. The respective Chinese characters mean “Box,” ”Horse,” “Fresh,” and “Raw.”
You may say: "I know this place. Isn’t it a supermarket with lots of international produce?" Yes, but have you explored the back and discovered that there are seafood chefs that cook your seafood to perfection? Hema Supermarket is what you've been waiting for to satisfy all your seafood cravings in the capital.
Before you go, make sure you download the Hema app. You must also have Alipay, as the market doesn’t support any other types of payment.
Now that we are ready to go, let's see what’s on the menu. But wait: there is no menu. You literally grab the live seafood that you want to eat straight from the tanks.
The choices are endless; every type of seafood you are craving is on offer. From salmon to crayfish, scallops to squid. So it's time to get your hands dirty and scoop up the live creatures swimming around in their tanks. Be careful not to be splashed by them.
If you're wary you can also, of course, get one of the many shopping assistants to help you. Once you are done with your selection, it’s time to get the seafood weighed. Following the weighing process, you need to head to the cooking line to select how you want your seafood to be cooked. There are about a dozen cooking methods. Once you have paid, they will hand you a beeping disk that tells you when your food is ready. You can sit and wait, then go and collect your food from the window when the disk lights up. Bear in mind that the food isn’t served all at once. So be prepared for multiple trips to the window.
We went for Oysters from France and Canada (RMB 20-30 each), boiled prawns (RMB 140 per KG) and Squilla mantis (RMB 120 per KG), a species of mantis shrimp that is popular among locals. We opted for the boiling method to let the crustaceans speak for itself. The juicy yet sweet meat left us grinning with satisfaction, and dipping it in a light soy sauce was the perfect finishing touch.
The flounder (RMB 60 each) like everything else was cooked beautifully, and the meat just melted in your mouth.
Then came the New Zealand green-lipped Mussels (RMB 100 per KG), which were plump and coated in a garlic and scallion sauce. Finally, we had the spicy crayfish (RMB 120 per KG). This was an addictive addition to our simple, light meal. Crayfish juices were flying out left, right, and center as we ate it. There is also a sushi bar and rice on offer if you are craving carbs.
Leave two hours for this seafood experience. Even though the store was trending on Weibo a year ago during its opening, the customers haven’t died down. Indeed, you will find yourself cueing for the cooking line and also standing around to get a table.
There are ten stores spread out all over Beijing open from 9am-10pm daily to satisfy your seafood cravings. This is a fun, interactive experience where you get to hand-pick your produce and know exactly what you are putting into your tummy.
Photos: Laura Zheng
