anese, and Chinese takeout — including a to-die-for Korean fried chicken vendor. Uptown Farmers’ Market 5757 North Central Avenue 602-859-5648 uptownmarketaz.com Nepalese dumplings. Filipino chicken skewers. Cold brew and soursop frozen ice pops. The Uptown Farmers’ Market, held on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the park- ing lot of North Phoenix Baptist Church, is back, with prepared food vendors firing up the grills and the other stands selling, be- tween them, just about anything you might want from an Arizona farmers’ market. There’s grass-fed beef, heirloom tomatoes, rye bread, hand-pounded salsa. As the sea- sons change, so too does the glorious rain- bow bounty of farm-fresh ingredients. The fruits and vegetables shine at stands like Wong Family Farms and McClendon’s Se- lect. Whether you come by for lobster rolls, pickles, or duck eggs, the community and wonderful vibe at this market managed by Bo Mostow will be a highlight of your week or weekend. Slice Eat 7111 East Thomas Road, Scottsdale 480-387-5423 sliceeat.com We’re not the biggest fans of drive-thrus under normal circumstances. Does this ozone-plagued town need more cars idling and releasing emissions? But COVID has made the drive-thru a little more acceptable. And we could probably stand to get off our climate-change high horse every now and then. Anyway, having spent more time at drive-thrus this past year or so, we can confidently report that the best one happens to be the newish Slice Eat, which comes to us from the owner of the up- scale Italian eatery Forno 301. Menu items range from a single, footlong slice of mar- gherita wood-fired pizza to a takeout bowl of fettuccine al burro e Parmigiano to — look out, Dairy Queen Blizzards — fresh pistachio gelato, all of which can be handed over through the window of your Subaru Impreza. Other quick, drive-thru- appropriate orders include cold brew coffee, chocolate shakes, and a Caesar salad. H-Mart 1919 West Main Street, Mesa 480-207-4560 hmart.com It was big news when Korean-American supermarket chain H-Mart opened its first Arizona location in Mesa last summer, and we’re happy to report that the store lives up to the hype. H-Mart has it all: a dizzying variety of Asian groceries, a not-to-be- missed food court, and killer K-pop playing on the speakers. Sure, it’s no mom-and-pop shop, but it also sells everything you need and everything you didn’t think you needed until you stumbled across it. Stock up on frozen dumplings, chili sauce, ram- butan, fresh seafood, outstanding chilled sake, a new rice cooker, and much, much more. On your way out, you can stop by the food court and chow down on Korean, Jap- Lee Lee International Supermarkets 2025 North Dobson Road, Chandler 480-899-2887 7575 West Cactus Road, Peoria 623-773-3345 leeleesupermarket.com One of these days, we’re going to head to Lee Lee, fill up a cart with products whose labels we can’t understand, and take our purchases home for some global culinary exploration. But until we conduct that grand experiment, you can just catch us at Lee Lee for our usual purchases, like fro- zen shumai, Filipino lumpia, containers of fried garlic that go great on everything, Bulgarian red pepper spread, central Euro- pean meats, Korean ramen, and so much more. We make sure we have extra time to shop when we get to one of Lee Lee’s two Valley locations; we like to stroll the wide aisles at leisure, looking at the unusual products and appreciating the gastronomic diversity of the world we live in. EEEEE 184 BEST OF PHOENIX 2021 | WWW.BESTOFPHOENIX2021.C0M | SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 B E S S UP T INT ERNA ERM A TIET RK O N A L f o S B E d & drE-THR o T DRIV i nk U B E S M T FA A ET RK RMERS’ B E S T A S IA N GR OC ERY S T OR E
