Assi, the Korean market that replaces Stein Mart in the Woodbridge neighborhood in Irvine, is having its grand opening this Thursday, March 28 at 9:00 a.m.
There will a ribbon-cutting by Irvine Mayor Steven Choi, live entertainment and giveaways, including rice cookers and other household appliances. There will also be a chance to win a new Kia (the winner of the car will be announced in August).
But here's the best part: there will be a so-called “Taste of Assi” event which will have 30 vendors offering free samplings of foods and products like shumai dumplings, donburi rice bowls, miso soup, tofu and chips.
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If you intend to do actual grocery shopping while you're there, the
market reportedly stocks 200 different kinds of frozen dumplings, 40
kinds of housemade kimchi, 18 kinds of in-house marinated meats, a
shabu-shabu section with meats sliced-to-order and ready-to-cook hotpot
packages.
There will also be a bakery with a food court with made-to-order
sushi, kimbap, Italian, and American vendors. We will do a follow up
post on these soon.
In the meantime, see you there!
Assi Natural Market is located at 730 Barranca Parkway in Irvine.
It's open Monday – Saturday from 8:00am to midnight and Sunday from
8:00am to 10:00pm.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.