As I said on Sunday in my look back/look ahead post, we didn’t go out to eat last weekend. And so I do not have a Twin Cities restaurant report this week. I do have a Twin Cities food report though, albeit on a market. It’s been a while since I last reported on an immigrant grocery store in the Twin Cities (Bodega 42 in Apple Valley). The one before that was my last report on an Indian grocery. That was a look at Spice Bazaar in Lake Elmo off Highway 94, which turned into India Market. Today I have a look at the other location of India Market, out in the western suburbs. This is the original location which has been in Eden Prairie since 2018. As with the newer Lake Elmo location, it is a very large store, containing within it both a butcher counter and a cafe with a fairly extensive menu. I’ve shopped there a few times before/after other appointments in the area (usually after a lunch thali at Godavari). This look at the market is put together from pictures taken on a couple of these visits in the last year and a half. I cannot promise that the layout of the store now is exactly as pictured—it changed a bit between my last two visits—but this should give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect to find there: in short, pretty much everything you need if you’re interested in cooking Indian food.
The size of the store means that aisles are wide and everything is laid out in a very organized manner. There’s a very large—and quite affluent—Indian community in Eden Prairie, which explains the high quality of the Indian restaurants and markets there. The spice aisles at India Market—for both whole spices and packet masalas—are quite comprehensive, and they also have a very large selection of frozen foods of all kinds—including one freezer just for Indian ice creams. You can also find more kinds of rice and flour than you will know what to do with, as well as a full range of Indian snacks. I particularly enjoy shopping from their vegetable section which has a large selection and is also laid out attractively. I’ve yet to buy anything from their butcher counter—which got a bit of a glow-up between my last two visits—but I’m always tempted by the cuts of goat they offer. Maybe next time.
I was also quite tempted last time by their cafe menu. Well, I’d just eaten one of those aforementioned large thalis at Godavari before looking at the menu so it wasn’t like I was seriously tempted but I did make a note to eat lunch there on my next round of errands in Eden Prairie. If you’ve eaten there, please share any recommendations you might have from the menu.
Well, that’s enough narrative; the pictures tell their own story. If you have questions about anything in them, go ahead and ask in the comments and I’ll try my best to answer. (And yes, they sell more than one brand of curry powder—as I never get tired of telling people, it’s only food writers who think that Indians don’t cook with curry powder.)
Will there be a Twin Cities food report next week? Well, it’s looking a bit unlikely right now with a lot of snow apparently forecast for the weekend. I’ve been jonesing for some ramen for a while and was hoping to head out to Ramen Kazama last weekend. Let’s see how it goes.