ottawa foodies

I am looking for indian grocers in the city (even into orleans/kanata)

I live downtown and the Nasa Foods and India Food Centre are not very well stocked so I am looking for a better one so I can one stop shop.

Do you know of any in your neighborhood (...in your neighborhood...in your neighh-bur-HOOD!)

There are a couple in Bayshore (2 or 3 IIRC) roughly across from the cinema in several of the buildings on that side of the street.

EDIT: not sure how good they are, but Bayshore has a pretty huge Indian population so I'd expect them to be good

There is a large middle east/south asian grocery in the plaza at the corner of St Laurent and Belfast, beside the produce place. Large, clean, lots of goodies.

Someone else knows the name I'm sure.

must eat - One of the cool things about the Ottawa Foodies Website is it is searchable. So I gave it a go... if you type in "indian grocer" in the SEARCH field then one vendor comes up Vaishali's Super Store Vaishali's Super Store who's address is listed as 62 Wylie Avenue (corner of Carling, in the Bayshore area). This is the area that Zymurgist referred to in his post above.

The entry for Vaishali's says it was created by Chimichimi and it is one of his favourite places, so perhaps he'll come by and let you know what the place is like.

Then I used the TAGS feature tagged "Indian" and then "Grocery" and came up with another 9 listings. Mind you that not all of these may be true grocery stores, but places that sell Indian products.

Ya Gotta Love this Website!

PS... If after all your searching you come up with a place that is currently NOT listed, make sure you come back and make an entry, and let us know what you discover about it.

Coincidentally, I was just at Vaishali's this morning with my kids. I was just buying some cinnamon and some spicy snacks for work. The nice lady behind the counter gave my kids lollipops and showed me the fresh (still warm) samosas that had just been delivered. I bought a couple and they were top notch with a good spice level.

In general this is my go-to store for Indian supplies, mostly because I live in the neighbourhood. The Allspice Superstore (Allspice Superstore) in Bells Corners was also very good last time I dropped by.

Vaishali's is the place to go, period. It's the only place in Ottawa that I can think of that sells fresh herbs, prepared foods, spices, snacks, pulses, rice, etc. all under one roof. The owners are super nice and willing to help out (read above, kid friendly). Second to that would be The Samosa Hut or NASA food center, but they aren't really comparable. I've never been to the Allspice Superstore, so I can't comment.

For some reason I was just reading the update in this thread and it made me think of summer 2007 when we were visiting my parents in Nova Scotia. My wife and I wanted to make an Indian dish that she and I had been making a lot of and we knew my parents would absolutely LOVE. But then there were the ingredients. The one very basic ingredient in this one was Garam Masala (which translates to "spice mixture" for those who didn't know, even if it does refer to a fairly specific mixture). We searched Pictou County high and low for about 3 hours and could not find a single place that had it. We eventually resorted to trying to make our own, but had to give up because we could not even find all of the constituent parts thereof.

So I hope you all know how good we have it here in Ottawa :-) Pictou County has a population of about 50,000. And yes, that's Peter MacKay's riding - the one that Elizabeth May so foolishly tried to steal from His Self.

Zym - Totally off topic...

RE: Elizabeth May and the Green Party... by last account I thought you were spouting their virtues (or was that just sprouting... what happens when you stay in the dark too long).
;-)

Back on topic...

As for Ottawa, we still get a bad wrap food wise from those "not in the know" (read residents of the BIG SMOKE) but we really do have a very happening food scene. I love this city, so small and compact, and yet so diverse.

I don't see the two as being mutually exclusive F&T. In fact I just wrote a lengthy item in my blog about how far too few people are critical of the parties they support, and this is why they get away with doing some of the atrocious things they do. I told Ms May from day 1 she was foolish to run in that riding - I knew because that's where I'm from. Even with the Liberals bowing out she didn't have a chance against His Self

Peter the place you are thinking of is the Mid East Food Centre and it is actually my first recommendation. (Great minds think alike!)

must eat another place I could recommend is Grace Ottawa on Bank. They carry an interesting mix of Indian/Carribean/Chinese products so you may find what you are looking for there. I could also recommend Al Jazeerah on Wellington in Hintoburg.

Vaishali's was the very first Indian Grocery store I was ever in. It was 1984/5.

I still play the Indian Classical records , yes records (as in LPs), I got that day.

There is nothing like a little shehnai playing low in the background when I'm serving my Lamb Khorma, Tandoori Chicken and Aloo Ghobi to my guests.

They seem to have the widest range of stuff including Bollywood filmies, CD's, health care products, incense, phooja items and cones of prepared henna for Mehndi.

Applying Mehndi to my female guests makes for a fun after dinner activity.

PS: The prices are sometimes a bit higher, than say The Samosa Hut, but the variety makes up for that.

Captain C - On behalf of all the other "gals" here at Ottawa Foodies, I gotta say sounds like you are the perfect host...

Great Food, Music, perhaps a Bollywood film later while we get the mehndi.

Let me be the first to sign up...
;-)