After five months of being in Buffalo, I finally shook off my laziness and made the trip to the Indian groceries in and around Buffalo. Well, I lie. I can never shake off my laziness. I am a lazy lump right up to the last nucleotide on my DNA. I could have avoided going to these stores for some more months (as long as my stash of Karuvepelai (curry leaves) held out). But guess what made me go? Office thanksgiving party. Hee Hee.
I verified some nifty facts from this expedition:
1. There are indeed THREE, not two Indian groceries around Buffalo and just ONE Indian grocery in Buffalo.
Lincoln Park Market
540 Niagara Falls Blvd.
Buffalo, NY 14223
(716) 833-3712
(Green Place Marker in the map on the previous post)
Super Bazaar
3218 Sheridan Drive
Amherst, NY 14226
(716) 835-4770
(Red Place Marker in the map on the previous post)
Spices of India
438 Evans Road
Williamsville, NY 14221
(716) 633-480
2. The Lincoln Park Market is a mere FIVE-minute-bus-trip away from the last metro station - University South Campus.
@chaibiscoot made a fleeting reference to this mystery store on Niagara Falls Boulevard, but was unsure of the address or the name. After some determined searching, I finally found the name and the address at a website I wouldn't have normally thought to browse:
3. The Super Bazaar counter is manned by Persians, and not Indians. I found this at an embarassing moment when I rattled on and on for about a minute in Hindi and at the end, found the girls at the counter staring at me in incomprehension. The Lincoln Park Market is run by a matronly lady from Bahadurgarh. Translated, it means the "land of the brave". I thought it was quite apt. The store is open till 11:00 PM on three days - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (I think) and she single-handedly manages the place and holds fort against shady-looking-hoodie-wearing potential trouble makers and stoned teenagers who stroll into the store for lottey tickets. For those not familar with the lay of the land in North India, a quick geography and history reckoner:
Bahadurgarh is about as far away from Delhi, as Rochester is from Buffalo. Quite interestingly, it used to be known as Garh Nana (The home of the maternal grandfather) earlier in the day (Early A.D. 1700s). Yeah, that name would have been so inappropriate for grocery-reviewer needs in 2007.
Anyway, getting back to the Indian grocery review...
4. The third grocery in Williamsville - Spices of India, which I didn't go to, is run by some cousins of the people who run an Indian grocery store in Rochester: Namasté (Henrietta Town Line Plaza). I know this by the ruling-out method as opposed to the direct-evidence method.
5. I unapologetically miss Rochester today. The Indian grocery store there - Namasté, is AWESOME, compared to the two I visited, here in Buffalo.
I think it's strange that Buffalo has a more sizeable Indian population as compared to Rochester, and yet, doesn't have a better Indian grocery. I was told that this was because Toronto, with its supposedly fabulous Indian groceries, is a stone's throw away. That leaves people like me, who need a visa to get into Canada, in a jam. What am I supposed to do? Apply for a Canadian visa every month, stating the reason as "Food Tourism"?? Ridiculous.
Oh dear, I have got derailed again. I will try to stick to the agenda here.
So, I donned double gloves to combat the chill, took the metro and then the 34A and then walked about 1/4th of a mile in the snow to get to Super Bazaar (at the corner of Sheridan and Bailey). I really didn't intend to buy a lot of stuff, but I got cornered into buying some uncharacteristic (for me) stuff because of my deranged mental reasoning. I figured that trudging in the snow and taking 3 different modes of transport to get to that store justified buying some crazy stuff. I wonder what I would have bought if I had taken the 34M, which goes right by the grocery, and would have cut down the walking.
So, all this shopping was the result of an A-->M impossible alien mutation. (Non-biology/genetics people can ignore this comment. BTW, M doesn't exist in the genetic make-up.)
I don't know what the matter is, today. I am being side-tracked into all sorts of frivolous detail. I really don't blame you if you have given up on trying to read this tripe, and have wandered on to snippier blogs.
The Super Bazaar is fairly small by Indian Grocery standards and average by Chinese Grocery standards. It has ****the cleanest**** red shopping baskets I have ever seen in any grocery. Quite possibly, they are brand new. No black residue, no rotten spinach trailing out the plastic mesh and no left-over receipts from the earlier shopper. I was admiring this level of basket-cleanliness when I collided head on with an old gentleman, who was kind enough to actually apologize for no fault of his own. Oh well, I am the queen of clumsy people all over the planet.
If you ever go to the Super Bazaaar, here's what you can expect. The first aisle to your right is lined on the right with frozen Indian stuff of every description, from masala-flavoured frozen vegetables to a variety of frozen ready-made meat dishes spiced with the condiments from the sub-continent. On the left is the lentil collection of the Indian and Pakistani universe. Every type of dried lentil and lentil powder you could ever hope to eat if you went to the sub-continent, is stacked there. Prices are disappointing, though. I think Tops and even Wegmans are cheaper in terms of the per-pound price for the lentils which have a joint mexican ancestry.
At the end of the aisle are vegetables. There were coconuts, Karuvepelai, Coriander (Cilantro) leaves, Mint leaves, Indian/Chinese Squash, Mooli/Daikon
, Mangoes, Chilles (3 different kinds), Ginger and other regonal Indian veggies stacked in boxes and shelves. At 6:00 PM on a Saturday, they were out of Okra. Though the list seems like a long one, Indian groceries that I have been to (Rochester, California) usually have a bigger and better variety of veggies than what I saw here.
What turned me off was, instead of selling Karuvepelai by the pound, as most groceries do, they had packed it up in miniscule plastic packets for $1 each. I like picking out my leaves. I hate people packing in the bad ones with the good ones. :/ The coriander bunches were $0.50 each (cheap). The mint leaves were $1.99 for a tiny bunch. Tomatoes were $0.99 a pound. On the whole, prices were on par with Guercio's but costlier than your average Indian grocery. If you didn't know, Indian groceries usually have the cheapest and the freshest veggie deals in the market.
The aisles in between were loaded with Indian/Persian/Pakistani snacks, pickles, teas, and other assorted regional stuff too tedious to document in detail (ask if you want to know something specific). But I do want to mention that this shop has the EXCELLENT Ahmad teas from London. In my personal opinion, the Ahmad Earl Grey tea is one huge reason why I would step away from the ledge and delay committing suicide on a bleak winter, if ever.
To photo-document the stuff I bought:
DELICOUS gujrati chick-pea crispies made in Canada.
These were $3.49 for 2. Great deal.
Indian Pickles to die for.
Another great deal - 3 for 2, for the price of $1.99 each. It has been so long since I have had the Avakkaay. Mmmmm... I hope its as good as I want it to be. I haven't cracked them open yet.
Puffed Rice (for the party snack)
I usually keep away from Indian snacks because they are seriously addictive, in addition to being totally loaded with saturated fat). I might just be the next person whose image turns up next to obesity articles if I continue on this unhealthy binge-buying trend. I also bought a handful of veggies, which were more in character. The pickles were a deprivation make-up. :)
The store also had several varieties of Basmati Rice, and a bazillion types of instant sub-continental "easy dinner" mixes.
After I finished shopping at the Super Bazaar, I just decided to walk down to the Lincoln Park Market. It is quite an easy walk of about a mile. I was egged on by a oh-so-delicious warm croissant from the Dunkin Donuts, I passed on my way. (corner of Eggert and Niagara Falls Boulevard).
The Lincoln Park Market is bang in the middle of a row of houses with yards. You could say it's a small strip mall, but not really. Its initial 2/6ths look like its just another trademark buffalo corner store - same old withered groceries - bananas, ginger, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, backed by an array of corner store merchandise and dollar store paraphernalia - imitation cosmetics, carbonated drinks, cleaning supplies and the like.
But deeper within the store is a wealth of Indian groceries. I was delirious to find my best fruit on the planet. Fresh delicious Guavas.
There were a variety of veggies in the glass door fridges. The lack of quantity was made up by the uniqueness of the veggies and fruits. The store had fresh okra, fresh Indian "Tinda" and "Lauki", a type of beans that I love - long long beans (I have no idea what it is called here) and fresh bitter gourd. All the veggies and fruits were so fresh! The prices were much much cheaper than the Super Bazaar.
The store also has Indian rice, snacks, coffee, tea and other odds and ends spread throughout about 4/6ths of its floor area. On the whole, (and this is a personal opinion) I think this is a better store than the Super Bazaar. It is cheaper, has more variety in veggies and fruits, is bigger, and has a friendlier manager.
I was told by the lady from Bahadurgarh that they are in the process of creating a website for the store, which would hopefully give the store a stronger internet presence. Right now, the store is represented online by a single reference on the Halal Meat site that I linked earlier. Admittedly, the store has been in existence for just about a year and is popular with the Indian students who live around the UB south campus, but it is notoriously hard to find for a new Buffalo resident who is not in contact with the student community and lives downtown. Yeah, that would be me.
Oh, and here's some more uncharacteristic stuff I bought at this store.
These little snack packets are a particularly good deal - you get three different varieties for the price of two - $0.99 each. And they are delicious! I am not sure what went into the decision of which Indian language to use for the labels on the packets. But all that matters is this little smeyely.
I am not sure if it is even anatomically possible for a person to lick their own eye, but if that's what it takes to express appreciation for these Indian snacks, I am quite willing to give it a try.
In stark contrast is this product, that I picked up at a horribly misguided moment. I am unwilling to call it coffee. It's hands down the most disgusting yucky "coffee" ever to exit the confines of coffee hell. It is apparently made in Mexico. All I can say is, the Mexicans have had their ultimate gastronomical revenge and have successfully delivered a blood vendetta to the US with this stuff. YUCK.
If you know of a person whom you dislike immensely and are mandated by holiday civililities to get a Christimas present for, I would recommend Nescafé Clasico, Made in Mexico. It's a fantastic way to re-affirm your hate for anyone.
That about wraps up this dreadfully meandering, and by no means complete, account of Indian Groceries in Buffalo (Sans the one on Williamsville). Long live the Smeyely. I hereby appoint it my mascot in the search of the better grocery stores around the city of Buffalo.
