Asian in a Strange Land

Patel Grocery

Neither I nor Denise know much about Indian cooking.  We love eating Indian food, but we haven’t had a go at cooking our own.  With that qualifier out of the way, let me plug this grocery store anyway.  Patel Grocery is an Indian grocery store just north of the new Ding How.  I don’t think it’s in the same continuous strip mall, but the parking lots are connected.  We went in there after having dim sum at Ding How, having just then spotted it for the first time.

Perusing the wares

I think they had 4-5 aisles full of wonderful stuff.  Raw spices (whole, unchopped, unground spices), spice mixes, 1001 varieties of rice, heat-and-eat breads like naan, canned ingredients, fresh produce, etc.  If you have any interest in Indian food you should at least go in there and look around.  I don’t cook much these days since Denise is so good at it and I’m lazy besides, but even I felt somewhat motivated to try cooking some of my own after walking through Patel Grocery (or at least getting Denise to).  And if you ever seriously considered cooking some Indian cuisine but didn’t think you could find the ingredients, now you know where to go.  Simply.  Awesome.  Jackson is just full of surprises.  Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something new pops up.

Patel Groceries
6800 Old Canton Road STE # 102
Ridgeland, MS-39157
601.952.0332

Ghar-E-Kabab

Actual date: August 12, 2009

Flying, lunch, dragging stuff to Susie’s house, and crashing for a few hours–that’s all we managed for day 1 of our D.C. trip.  After regaining some energy, we rolled out of bed and went to Ghar-E-Kabab for a super late dinner by our standards, getting to the restaurant around 9:30 p.m.  There was only one other occupied table when we entered, which for Ghar-E-Kabab’s sake we hope is because we were so late getting there.  It couldn’t have been because their food was lacking, because I can tell you right now that they serve some excellent Indian food there. » Continue Reading…

Ruchi India waiting area

I’m continually amazed by how diverse the food scene is in little ol’ Jackson, Mississippi.  It’s definitely not to the level of proper cities like New York, L.A., etc., but for a 300,000-ish population city in the deep South it has more than its fair share of ethnic (there’s that term again) cuisine.  I’ve already posted about Japanese and Caribbean, and this time it’s Indian.  While Susie had lunch with friends of hers, the rest of us ate at Ruchi India.  Ruchi India serves, predictably, Indian food–”North & South Indian cuisine” according to their business card.  On weekdays they have a lunch buffet, which is what we had. » Continue Reading…