This past Friday, with my two bestest good friends in tow, I finally did something I’ve been wanting to do for ages: I went shopping at an Indian grocery store.

There are quite a few in Austin, so in the end I went with intuition…and the fact that this particular store also had a restaurant attached and we needed lunch.  Gandhi Bazar, located on Parmer Lane way up north of Austin, is also home to the tiny little vegetarian lunch-counter cafe called Curry in a Hurry.  Both were a tasty experience.

We hit the Curry place first, since we were hungry.  It’s a very small space, with only four folding tables and a long counter with the menu handwritten on a board on the wall; the idea of the place is that they offer quick lunches at low prices, and while there are a la carte items like samosas and pav bhaji (an Indian sloppy joe, basically) the best value is the meal deal, where for a single price you get a curry, dhal, rice, and bread.  I ordered a potato-tomato curry, which was blisteringly spicy (my lips went numb about five bites in) but had a phenomenal flavor; the dhal (lentil soup) was delicious, and the rice and roti (whole-wheat flatbread) were also great.  You get an amazing amount of food for $5.99, so much that all three of us had leftovers to take home; we fed three people meals, samosas, and beverages for under $25.00.

Black Cardamom

A lot of people are afraid to set foot inside an ethnic market, and it’s understandable; given the vast array of strange names, smells, and packaging, it’s easy to get lost. Aside from doing a bit of research on the internet beforehand, I recommend a guide like The Indian Grocery Store Demystified; it will help you if you don’t know your chutneys from your ghee. (That same series includes a guide for Asian grocery stores, and one for Latin stores as well.)  Everyone has a fear of looking like a moron, and I admit to worrying that I’d come off as some dumb American trying to co-opt Indian culture – but think of it this way: a shop worth its salt will want new customers, and will want customers who spread good word-of-mouth for such a niche market.  Not to mention, being kind to each other helps foster cultural understanding.  It’s my experience that if you don’t walk into a place and act like an asshole (laughing at the music, reading the labels in an obnoxious fake Southern accent at top volume, that sort of nonsense), you’ll have your courtesy returned to you tenfold.

The nice thing about Gandhi Bazar was that it was clearly organized, each aisle labeled with its category, and items were very carefully arranged–in many cases, in alphabetical order.  Snacks were on one wall, along with various types of flour; then the aisles went into ready-to-eat meals, sweets, spices (there were two rows of spices), health and beauty products, religious supplies, and legumes/nuts/canned goods.  There is a small produce section at the back and frozen foods, as well as fresh goods like kari leaves.  I didn’t buy any produce, but everything looked fresh and lovely, especially the tiny eggplants. The produce section also included bitter melon, okra, fresh ginger, mangoes, and cucumbers.

I’d already read up on the different items I might want to purchase, and I’m familiar enough with Indian cuisine to recognize most of what I saw or at least be able to categorize it.  One thing I was really looking forward to was the spices: on one aisle they have mixes, and on another, individual ingredients.  I’ve heard from many sources that in ethnic markets you should be doubly careful about checking expiration dates, but I didn’t see anything out-of-expy while I was poking around.

Jaggery - Indian brown sugar

The store was very clean and tidy, and I appreciated the clean restroom (having IBS as I do, I’m always grateful for good facilities).  The staff was courteous and helpful, and I have no doubt that if I’d had questions the clerk would have been happy to answer.  As it was I think we were something of a novelty – three white women with multicolored hair, piercings, and tattoos filling up a basket with a wild variety of items.

And oh, the things I bought!  I found pav bhaji masala and chaat masala, spice blends I’ve been wanting since my Mumbai Street Foods class a few months back; I bought black cardamom pods, a bag of yellow lentils, several ready-to-eat meals, a bag of snack mix (turned out not to be that great, but hey, you never know until you try!), fresh kari leaves, a package of jaggery (a coarse brown sugar with a distinctive flavor), a jar of mint chutney for Laura, and several other items.

The bounty there is amazing to someone like myself who has been reading about all sorts of esoteric ingredients that don’t tend to show up on megamart shelves:  chappati flour, all sorts of legumes, rices, chutneys galore, pickles, sweets made of jaggery and nuts, ingredients for idlis and dosas…it’s an embarrassment of riches which, though commonplace to those who were born to the culture, was like Wonderland for me.

Gandhi Bazar also has a section of supplies for puja, or religious ceremony; in addition to incenses and resins, they had burners, oil lamps, statuary, and puja thali (offering bowls and trays).

Overall I had a great time shopping there, and now I feel much more confident about ethnic grocery stores in general.  I might not make the trek up to Parmer all that often, but when I do, Gandhi Bazar will be at the top of my list of places to stock up on culinary essentials.

Seriously, this place is HUGE. It's the foodie megachurch.

I’ve been looking for ways to expand my horizons, and not just from a culinary perspective; I often feel like my life is a little circumscribed.  A few weeks ago I was tooling around online looking for something new to try, and I came across the cooking classes at the Whole Foods Culinary Center at 6th & Lamar.

If you’re familiar with Austin you know that the 6th & Lamar Whole Foods is the flagship store, and is less a grocery store than it is an amusement park.  I can wander around it for hours.  It turns out they also have a cooking school.  There are both demonstrative and hands-on classes, both of which involve lots of eating; they cover all sorts of subject matter from the fundamentals (knife skills, mother sauces) to the slightly wacky (a vegetarian Iron Chef session where you’re teamed with a chef and given a mystery ingredient).  They have partner classes that would be great for date night, and all sorts of ethnic and regional cuisines, both vegetarian and omnivorous.

Like everything at Whole Foods, they’re not cheap, but I thought, what the hell?  I haven’t been to a cooking class in nearly ten years, since my six months at culinary school; I had a little bit of money saved for something like this to shake up my routines; and they had the perfect class for me:  Mumbai Street Food.

YUM.

Street food is a big deal in India. Everywhere you go there are chai vendors, chaat stands, and food stalls.  (Chaat means “lick,” and basically translates as “snack.”)  Mumbai (Bombay) in particular is famous for its street food.

The class was taught by Shefaly Ravula, an enthusiastic and knowledgeable instructor who teaches several other Indian cooking classes at the center.  It was a hands-on class, with two students at each station, and since I was solo I partnered up with a young man who ended up being grateful for my culinary knowledge.  During the class I realized something interesting: there are a lot of people who don’t know a thing about cooking, and even less about Indian food.  I have the benefit of some formal training, a love of Good Eats, and an addiction to cookbooks, but apparently I’m even more awesome than I thought I was in the kitchen.  Who knew?

Well, besides all my friends.

The class menu included Pav Bhaji, Bhel Puri, three different chutneys, vegetable pakoras, and Masala chai.  With the exception of the more time-consuming chutneys, which were assigned two teams apiece, each team of two students got to prepare all the dishes, and at the end we all sat down in the demo kitchen (which has long tables instead of work stations) and ate our food, drank wine, and discussed the recipes.

Pav Bhaji is a tomato, potato, and pea curry that is served on grilled white bread.  It was pretty traditional in preparation and didn’t involve many esoteric ingredients aside from a spice blend made specifically for that recipe, which you could easily substitute with your own blend. The curry was delicious, especially on the grilled bread–Pav Bhaji is served on regular old white bread, not naan or roti, which is usually brushed with ghee.   Here’s a recipe for it from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  It ends up being more or less an Indian Sloppy Joe, only much healthier (and if you leave off the ghee, totally vegan.)

We had Tamarind-date Chutney, Cilantro-Mint Chutney, and Hot Garlic Chutney (my partner and I made the latter); I’m not big on chutneys, but it was still great fun.

All three chutneys combine in Bhel Puri, an odd dish served at room temperature that’s…well, it’s hard to describe.  Bhel is a crispy snack mix that’s sort of like Chex Party Mix, made up of puffed rice, chickpea flour noodles, and this other crispy thing.  You combine those with chopped onion, tomato, cooked potato, and peanuts, then mix the whole mess together with spoonfuls of the three chutneys, and eat it before it gets soggy.  The cereal (I can’t really figure out what else to compare it to) goes snap! crackle! pop! when it’s mixed.  It’s hard to describe the taste of the dish; it’s fresh, light, and slightly sweet from the tamarind, but also very garlicky and has a strange, but really appealing, texture.  (Here’s a picture of the dish that might help explain it.)  I didn’t think I would like it based on the ingredients (and the fact that I dislike raw onions and tomatoes intensely), but it was actually amazing. You can find the recipe for Bhel Puri as well as the three chutneys here.  The neat thing about it was that Bhel Puri isn’t something you’ll find in a lot of Indian restaurants and mainstream cookbooks; it’s authentic and involves a shopping trip, but once you have the ingredients it’s incredibly easy.

Shefaly made the pakoras while we were eating our first two dishes, since pakoras are deep fried and don’t translate well to a class environment; pakoras are basically like veggie tempura, only vegan; the batter is made with chickpea flour and spices and has the consistency of crepe batter.  Imagine Indian onion rings.  Oh so tasty, and usually served with various chutneys; it’s most popular with the tamarind variety.

(Chutney in India is not a chunky salsa type thing like we commonly think of; it’s just a sauce, and is normally pourable.  Some are cooked, some raw; they’re intense and complexly flavored.)

The last recipe was a typical Masala chai, and it was the only other nonvegan recipe, although it would be very easy to veganize simply by using soy milk instead of cow milk.  Chai in India isn’t as spicy as what is usually served here; it’s very sweet, generally made with an unrefined sugar called jaggery.  Chai is made with granulated, rather than leaf tea–granulated tea is the tiny bits left over after the leaves are separated out, and it makes for a strong chai.  It’s warm, comforting, and a perfect compliment to the bright spicy flavors of Bombay street food.

I highly recommend Whole Foods’ cooking classes to anyone wanting to expand their culinary repertoire. A class would make a great birthday gift (two of the students were there for a birthday outing).  The classes range from $18 for the lunchtime short courses (which are demonstrative only but do include lunch) to $65 for a 2 1/2 hour hands-on class where everything is provided (including cleanup, thank goodness). Most of the demo classes are 1 1/2 hours and are $35. The hands-on classes are small, so there’s plenty of attention from the instructor, and the facilities are wonderful (although they need to sharpen their knives). I came home with a recipe packet that had Shefaly’s pointers and recommended brands for spices and other ingredients; she also gave us information about Indian grocery stores in the area.

I plan to go back to the Culinary Center soon, and probably often if I can afford it. I figure, if I took myself to dinner and a movie I’d pay, say $20 for the meal and at least another $20 at the theater; add in the fact that you learn so much, get great recipes to try yourself, can take home your leftovers, get to drink wine, and meet people, and to me, it’s worth every penny.  As I said they would make great gifts to your foodie friends.

Just coming up in April-June they have a vegan cupcake class (sold out, unfortunately), a Lunch Express vegetarian class, an intro to the Engine 2 diet (the vegan firefighter diet created here in Austin) led by its founder, Rip Esselstyn; knife skills classes; a vegetarian pizza class; Moroccan veg; a Lunch Express Indian veg; an Indian roti workshop; fundamentals of sauteeing and steaming; vegetarian Tapas; foods for Cinco de Mayo; a Thai vegan feast; soy foods; gluten free Middle Eastern mezze; and even Canning 101…and those are just the ones that sound like fun to me!

It’s a food geek’s dream come true.

I suppose it’s unfair to write a review of a restaurant after eating there precisely once and only sampling two dishes, but still, I can usually tell by the feel of a place if I’m going to come back, and in the case of New India Cuisine at Oltorf and South Congress (in the shopping center with AceMart), I’d say it’s a certainty I’ll return over and over.

I really feel sorry for many omnivores, not because of what they eat, but because of what they often don’t. So many people on the Standard American Diet eat such boring food.  American food, let’s be honest, is kind of like being punched in the face by a frat boy singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  (Two words: Guy Fieri.  Two more words: Rachael Ray.  Okay, two more:  FOOD NETWORK.)  Fast food and chain restaurants suck the originality out of it, and people get so used to the taste assault of fat and salt and sugar that more adventurous flavors fall by the way.  Living in Austin is a blessing because our fair city is the meeting of many minds, and all those minds love good food. Where else can you get Indian Tex-Mex?

Try and wrap your brain around that one for a second.

Even after I went veg (the first time? second?) I was terrified of Indian food, and my first few experiences with it weren’t stellar, consisting as they did mostly of buffets without labels. Some people love buffets when trying new cuisines because they can sample a variety of dishes without commitment, but buffet food is usually sub-par compared to having an entree prepared fresh; most of the time I’d rather have someone recommend a particular item to me and give it a shot.

Thankfully, a local vegan blogger called Lazy Smurf reviewed New India recently, complete with pictures (which I failed to take, whoops), so I felt confident in trying the place out on my own this evening after Nia class.

New India is a small cafe, sharing space with a place called Eva B’s that I’ve never heard anything about one way or the other.  The entire menu is written out in colorful chalk above the counter, although there are also hard copies and an online version, and there’s even a glossary of unfamiliar Indian terms hanging nearby. The cafe has a surprising amount of seating for its size, and though when I arrived it was utterly empty, by the time I left there were several other tables full, including an entire Indian family (always a good sign) and the Rudest Lesbians Ever.

What’s unique about New India, aside from the remarkably low prices, is the curious combination of Indian, American, and Tex-Mex:  they have burgers, quesadillas made with cheddar and paneer, “Mumbai Frankies” (aka roti rolls, aka Indian burritos), and the usual array of curries, breads, lassis both sweet and salty, and finger foods.  Vegan options are plentiful and clearly marked on the menu, and they even have a vegan Thali, basically a sampler plate of all sorts of veggies, rice, curry, and bread.  New India has biodegradable containers, and they give you a discount if you bike up rather than driving a car.

I unconsciously ended up ordering the same thing Lazy Smurf did on her first visit:  Puff Samosas ($4 for two) and a Vegan Frankie ($3). She however split the Thali with a friend, which I would never have had room for.

The samosas, first of all, are enormous.  Each one was about the size of my fist, and they’re puffy and round and stuffed so full of seasoned potatoes that I was amazed they didn’t explode.  Really, what can be bad about potatoes wrapped in dough and deep fried?  At Tarka, my other favorite Indian cafe in town, the samosas are about the same price but smaller, and blisteringly hot on my wimpy tongue.  New India’s weren’t as spicy but still made my nose run (I’m serious, I’m a wimp), and rather than a turmeric-laced yellow filling they were brownish due to a lot of cumin.

The Frankie was awfully small at first glance, but it was amazingly filling; fresh roti is wrapped around grilled onions, peppers, and mushrooms (the other versions include paneer cheese, chicken, and ground goat, ew). Roti, for the uninitiated, is basically an Indian tortilla, as opposed to naan, which is a thicker softer flatbread baked in a tandoori oven.  Naan is usually not vegan because it’s brushed with ghee, or clarified butter; roti, known as chappatis in other parts of the country, is normally vegan. Everything was fresh and delicious, just spicy enough, and I had yellow juice running down my hands that I surreptitiously licked off when the waitress wasn’t looking.

So for eight dollars I was absolutely stuffed; I’d call that a win. The most expensive items on the menu top out at $10 for lamb curries, and $9 for the vegan Thali.  They also have desserts and three varieties of lassi:  mango, sweet cardamom, and a jeera salt lassi (jeera = cumin). There are also the usual sodas (Pepsi based), juices, and chai. It’s BYOB.

I think New India would be a great place to grab dinner on the way home, or stop and have a cheap and delicious lunch; I was certainly pleased with it, and since it’s so close to NiaSpace I can see myself having dinner there after class pretty often. I’m looking forward to trying other menu items including the Thali and the Potato Burger, although the Frankie was so good it’ll be hard to resist having the same thing every time.

I’m really hoping this place takes off and is around a long while. As much as I love Tarka, there’s no such thing as too many Indian restaurants in South Austin! (My meal of choice at Tarka, incidentally, is veggie pakoras and Madras soup, quite possibly the most phenomenal edible thing in the universe.)

For more information about the restaurant, check out their home page; for a review with pictures both of the food and the space, surf over to Lazy Smurf’s awesome blog.