(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Beryl.
And in today's video, we are going on a field trip.
It's really sunny out right now.
We're going to go to the Indian grocery store
because I have some things that I need to pick up
for a video and a lot of you have been asking me
where I get the things for my video.
So synergy.
Speaking from personal experience.
I think it can be very intimidating going
to an international grocery store,
mostly because you're seeing a lot
of foods that you're not familiar with
and it can be like, oh, what do I buy?
I don't know, so then, you know
maybe you just ended up with like one thing
but there's all these things that you were like
man, I wish I knew what that was
because I kind of want to buy it and eat it.
So I'm also gonna use this as an opportunity
to talk to you about some of my favorite items
from the Indian grocery store
because I go a lot, like a lot, a lot.
So I have opinions.
I realize that I'm a white person talking
about Indian food and Indian culture
especially in the sense there's nobody else
in the video really, but me,
and so I am leaving some links in the description
with some amazing Indian chefs and Indian vloggers.
If you want to look at their content as well
just because, you know, what do I know?
I only know what I know, so,
okay let's go to the grocery store.
I'm like a real vlogger now.
(chuckles)
It's nice that I live actually really
near an Indian neighborhood.
So, there are bigger grocery stores that you can go to,
but this is nice because it's like a little local shop
and I know the guy and he's really nice.
And he always gives me free dessert and he likes my dog.
But Asha's not with me today.
It's too much to do like this which has already very strange
and have a dog and shop.
So this neighborhood is affectionately known
as Curry Hill.
It's right next to the Murray Hill neighborhood
in kind of lower Midtown Manhattan in the twenties.
There are quite a few different grocery store options here.
And then the further down you go,
you're going to see a lot more restaurants
of North Indian cuisine, South Indian cuisine,
even Nepalese cuisine.
But this is my favorite shop, New Foods of India.
(suspenseful music)
Like most Indian grocery stores,
there will be a huge wall of pickle.
And pickle in India is not the same as pickle in the US,
like a cucumber that is brined absolutely not.
Indian pickle is totally different.
The most common is probably mango pickle,
but if you're not familiar with the flavor
it can be quite powerful, yeah.
I think that a nice entry point would actually be going
with either a green chili pickle like this one,
or a red chili pickle.
These act in a way like hot sauce so you really only need
a little bit on your plate.
A little bit goes a long way.
You might know about how I feel about Maggi hot and sweet,
it is the best condiment that's ever been created.
Buy it, buy it, buy it, buy it.
The wall of spices.
These are the box spices.
This is something that actually a lot
of Indians use in their cooking,
so it's not really cheating and you can buy the
premixed spice packs for any type of dish.
I definitely recommend Kitchen King, it has everything
that you need to make a multitude of different dishes.
Also, if you want to try something new, Pav Bhaji,
this is an amazing spice blend for a delicious vegan
or vegetarian meal.
This is what the final dish looks like,
just in case you're curious, it's cauliflower and potato.
And honestly, it's the best.
When it comes to the loose spice section, going to
an Indian supermarket is a great way to refill your spices.
You don't need to buy more glass jars every time.
Everything you want is going to be here.
Some fun, random ones.
This is sour mango, and when you want to
add a little bit of sourness without adding any liquid,
this will do the trick.
Also this black pink salt is really good on fruit
and onions and I've never seen this before,
so I'm going to buy it.
Of course, there's Maggi.
I mean, it's Maggi.
We know about that.
These are my husband's favorite cookies.
If you like chocolate cookies, get the hide and seeks.
When we're talking about something that
every Indian household has, it's probably
this garlic and ginger paste.
You can get it in this huge jar.
You can of course make this
but it's just so much easier to buy it.
Sometimes shortcuts are worth it.
As far as dried goods go
there are so many different types of lentils.
I don't really know the difference between all of them
so I'm going to move on.
I'd talk about two other dried goods that I really liked.
This is Sabudana, they are tapioca pearls.
There are a lot of dishes that you can make with this.
My favorite is Sabudana khichdi and it's something
that I have made many times on my Instagram stories,
I will leave a recipe link below.
And there's Poha, which is shredded rice flakes.
This is a really delicious breakfast food.
It's definitely a savory dish that has a lot of flavor
in the morning, but if you're somebody who likes
a savory oatmeal in the morning, I definitely definitely
recommend poha.
Actually. I just recommend it period, because it's awesome.
Now we're going into the freezer section
and you don't need to only buy frozen samosas.
This dish is called Medu Vada, it is from Karnataka,
which is in the South of India.
It is made out of lentils, black lentils to be exact.
And in essence, they're kind of like fried donuts
and you just need to refry them.
It comes with a coconut chutney that is really nice.
I like using my air fryer because, you know,
I just love my air fryer.
(funky music)
Another great frozen food item is called Patra.
This is from the state of Gujarat,
on the West coast of India.
It is made from colocasia leaves,
that then have flour put on them and they're fried.
And it's something totally, totally different.
The best way to reheat them, again,
I think is in the air fryer.
I'm bias I guess.
(funky music)
Patra is something that I came across
because my friend brought them over one day
and I just became obsessed.
They're so good at breakfast time,
you can have them with yoghurt and it's really good,
but again on their own, oh my God.
I can't even describe the flavor to you
because I don't know anything else that tastes like this.
I didn't even know what a colocasia leaf was
until I started eating this.
But, now I know that I like the taste of them.
Good old trustee paneer.
It's actually really easy to make and if you guys want,
I can share my mother-in-law's recipe
or make a video about it,
because buying it's great, making it usually
tastes a little bit better, not going to lie.
Oh, and this is what I actually had to come here,
for, bitter gourd.
This is for my foods that I don't like, video.
I don't know how other people feel about it, but.
(scoffs)
And one last thing, this is Upma.
It's actually dry roasted semolina.
And inside this there are cashews, carrots
and green chilies, so it's not going to be bland,
but we'll see how it tastes when we get home.
And that's it. I'm done.
We did it.
sorry. Thank you.
Everything's going in the bag.
And that was my grocery haul. Ta da.
Thank you.
Big bag.
(upbeat music)
I'll show you guys, what I got when I get home.
Oh, it's so hot.
Okay. I'm just going to quickly make this,
inside, you'll see is the packet of the dried semolina.
Oh my God this spoon is so sad.
All I have to do is add the water, give it a stir
cover it and let it sit for five minutes.
Pretty easy.
It looks good.
Here we go. Walking to set.
Ho ho ho.
(upbeat music)
Okay, here I am.
Okay. I'm going to try this.
Ooh, it's kind of spicy.
This is like if cous cous was popped off
with flavor, you know.
Semolina is so yummy.
(suspenseful music)
So that was our little outing, but it did give me
this amazing idea and tell me if you agree.
Let's do a community video at the grocery store
and everybody show us your favorite items
in the grocery store.
Like, I love going into grocery stores when I travel,
it's probably my favorite thing to do.
And I feel like this could be such a cool video
but I need to know if you guys are on board,
because obviously it takes a village.
So let me know and I will get to work
on organizing it so we could make that video.
Okay. That's it.
I will see you all in my next video.
Bye.