Most Excellent Adventure Stop #4

Last, but not least, on the ethnic market tour last weekend was Little India in northeast Minneapolis.  I was looking forward to visiting this store more than any of the others because I'm a big fan of Indian cooking, cook Indian food at home at least weekly and had never been to an Indian grocer in the Twin Cities.  Shame on me!

Okay, no more shame.  On to the food!

I was mostly interested in the packaged foods here, but they do have a little produce area and a deli counter will a variety of (presumably non-vegan) sweets.  Honestly, I didn't even really look at those areas.  I really focused on the pickles, spices, snacks and beans.  No surprises there, huh?

Look at all this fantastic stuff!  I got tamarind concentrate, mango pickle, super yummy puffed rice and dried fruit snack, amchur (mango) powder, urad dal (black beans that look like mung beans), chora dal (whitish lentils), three kinds of pappadum (masala, cumin and green chili), Tiger Balm for headaches and candy coated fennel seeds.  I'm super excited to make the pappadum!  And even Mike can enjoy these since they're gluten free.  I'm pretty excited for the kids to try them, too.  I'm pretty sure that they'll be fans.

I seem to remember a tons of recipes in my various Indian cookbooks calling for the amchur powder, so it'll be fun to make the recipes with it and see if they are different from when I made them without it.  I don't know what to expect, but mango powder sounds fantastic!

It was really funny to read the Tiger Balm package today and see that in addition to headaches, this particular variety is supposed to be a remedy for flatulence!  Perfect for those headachey, gassy days!  Ha!

I'll definitely be back to Little India- It's great to know where to find some of the more obscure Indian beans and spices!

And so concludes the grand tour of 4 ethnic markets in the Twin Cities.  It's not so exhausting to read it, but after 6 hours of shopping, we were glad to end it and collapse at home!  Be sure to check out Catherine's views on the markets and all the fabulous goodies she got.