Desserts and snacks from Namaste Plaza

Now where were we? Oh yes, at the checkout at Namaste..

Here was our basket filled with, uh, sugary snacks and drinks along with two out of the three Indian-style ice creams that I bought.

I thought it would be fun to try something new for dessert...


Shortly after this shot was taken, I was scolded for taking photos, so if you go here, be really stealthy, surreptitious and as inconspicuousas possible (unlike me)...

Here are the rapidly melting ice creams at one of the tables outside of Yogurt Swirl. Bert was inside to get a cold drink because we felt guilty bogarting one of their tables.

As you can see, there were three types of Kulfi (a type of ice cream popular in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Burma). Kulfi is a non-whipped ice cream made with sweetened milks (I've seen some recipes utilize powdered milk too) that is heated over low heat and flavored with spices and nuts.

This was Bert's Pista (pistachio)...

While this was my Falooda (it was rose flavored, had tiny tapioca balls and noodles in there). I didn't like how the stick was centered and I kept thinking that it would fall apart when I was eating it.

TC's mango kulfi.

All of our ice creams were conical in shape and were quity creamy and thick tasting. They seemed to melt easily too. TC really enjoyed her mango bar.  It was so different from the Mexican style paletas.

Here's another look at my Faloodeh bar. Even though I don't really like floral flavors (like lavender and rose), I bit the bullet so we could have a variety for "research". Plus, the pink looked pretty among the light green and orange bars.

You can see the stringy bits of the noodles in there. At first I thought it was coconut, but then I remembered having a dessert with the same name at Soltan Banoo, an eclectic Persian restaurant in University Heights. I also wasn't sure about the little dark bubbles in there. At first I thought they were seeds, but realized they were tiny tapioca pearls. This was kind of a neat sensation. The rose flavor wasn't as pronounced either. I thought this was pretty refreshing and definitely different.

To refresh your memory, here is that Faloodeh essert at Soltan Banoo:

(photo from "Three Times Dope" - January 2013)

All together now!

Ha, mine is pretty mangled.

Bert thought the pistachio flavor was pretty faint. The green color is courtesy of food coloring. The pistachios themselves were finely ground, making the texture kind of like a fine grit.

The wrapper for my bar...

The other flavors we saw in the freezer were Malai (a milk flavor, whitish bar) along with round containers of the same flavors. The bars were $1.99 each.

One thing about the cashier...she didn't seem too knowledgeable about the flavors. I asked her what 'malai' was along with 'faloodeh' and she couldn't coherently tell me. It's not that she couldn't speak English (she did). I thought she would know but she didn't.

Here were the other snacks we bought - these were tiny cookies ("biscuits") shaped like palmiers. They did NOT taste like palmiers, but more like little tea cookies.

TC's Thums Up soda, considered the most popular soda brand in India. It was introduced in 1977 after Coca Cola was kicked out of India, but the brand was later bought by Coke to serve as a rival to Pepsi. Interesting.

We haven't opened this yet, but I'll make sure to update this post with our reactions.

Bert picked out this salty and sweet snack mix which has potato sticks, rice puffs, nuts, raisins, and curry leaves. I've already tried it and I like it a lot! It reminds me of the crunchy stuff that Surati Farsan Mart uses on their Bhel Puri.

Apparently, you can also buy this on Amazon...for $4.99 a bag! Ouch! I think I paid less than that!

This Hazelnut Cream Kit Kat bar was $1.29. It's from Bulgaria.

Unfortunately, I left the bar in my purse which was on top of our dryer, which we used later that day. The bar was nice and melted but at least it was still in the wrapper. I ended up freezing it. Our poor candy bar is now a shapeless stick but we still plan to eat it, ha ha!

I really liked the variety of items here, both fresh and packagaged. I am also curious about the takeout area with sweets. We will have to explore that next time we were up here.

It's nice to see another Indian market in the area, along with another restaurant (8Elements). Most of the Indian places are in the Little India strip mall further down on Black Mountain Road. What a fun little visit! I'm glad Cathy told me about it and that we got to check it out and try some new desserts as well. Another visit is in order soon!