Bombay Bazaar

My neighbor (the wife) expressed an interest in Indian food and markets so we thought we'd swing by here...

I was hoping that Surati Farsan would be open...

so we could pick up some sweets on the way home, but darnit, it was closed!

So, we all stepped into this little market, Bombay Bazaar for a quick looksee.
.
They had a massive array of spices (cheap too!), interesting snacks, fresh fruit and vegetables, frozen items, and candies. We didn't really get anything here but it was quite fun seeing all of the various types of spice mixes, curries, and boxed foods they had. Here are a couple that I picked up for fun.

This was the Rajgaro (amaranth) brittle. When I picked it up, I actually thought they were sesame seeds, but upon tasting, and with closer inspection, the seeds are smaller and have a different taste to them. The brittle was hards, as in break your teeth hard. We no like.

The other candy was the Jaggery Rewdi. Jaggery is unrefined sugar and 'rewdi' refers to these small sesame seed ball candies which can also be found in shapes of small slabs or ovals. They are a traditional sweet of Northern India and considered 'seasonal', being available only during the winter. Not sure if this is offered all year. This was also a bit on the 'hard' side. Not easy to eat at all and forget it if you have braces or retainers. It was much sweeter than the first candy and I liked the sesame seed flavor much better than amaranth.

When I looked up what rewdi was online, I came across this disturbing article from December 2011, "CDHP warns consumers not to earn certain candies imported from India". As luck would have it, rewdi was on the list! The article names and has links of photos of the four different brands (the one I bought wasn't there). Apparently, these are little lead filled nuggets. Just lovely.

So...even if the bag I bought wasn't on the list, I'm kind of wary eating this. I only tasted this candy the first day I bought it and I had about four pieces.

Of the two, I liked these smaller candies much better but that was before I found out it had lead!

Bombay Bazaar
9484 Black Mountain Road
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 566-2627

bombaybazaarstore.com

This is the same shopping mall that has:

Surati Farsan Mart (visit 1, visit 2 and visit 3) along with Bawarchi Dosa
Madras Cafe & Ashoka the Great(the last two are Kirk's posts)...

Yikes, two weeks of vacation just flew by! One more left and it's back to the office!