Honest Indian

Just a short note to say that the Indian grocery store I saw on Saturday was open today, and, at the end of the afternoon, I wandered over there to see what they had. Unlike the "Asia" stores in Europe, this was a dedicated Indian store, with a few additions like Caribbean hot sauce and, amazingly 00 flour, used for pizzas, which I've never seen in a market here before. But mostly it's Indian. You need a 5 kilo sack of cloves? The friendly, English-speaking guy who runs the place has it. But every spice, every type of dal, every kind of flour used in Indian cooking, freezers full of vegetarian stuff and a separate one for meat-bearing stuff (and, amazingly frozen cubed panir, the Indian cheese that's such a pain in the butt to make at home), teas, dessert mixes, and some heat-and-eat dishes that looked interesting: non-refrigerated, and presumably in plastic bags of some sort. No fresh produce, though: you still need your Asia store for fresh chiles and cilantro. I was overwhelmed! It's been a while since I've been in a place like this, and never in continental Europe, only in Britain. Unsurprisingly, he gets his stock from Leicester, and imports it himself. He even gave me two tips on Indian food locally: Le Shiva, in the Antigone neighborhood, which he said was "ah, okay," and someplace around Palavas on the seashore called New India, which he said was the real deal, "but you must have a car to get there."

Anyway, local vegetarians take note: you can make scrupulously authentic Indian food with the stuff at this place, and now that my sense of smell and taste is back, I intend to!

Sai Food, 3 rue Maury, 34000 Montpellier. Open Tue-Sat, Saturday til 2pm. Tel: 04 67 71 89 24