They opened not too long ago along with a new Indian restaurant, 8Elements, located a few stores down. Namaste Plaza is an Indian supermarket chain with locations throughout the Bay Area/Silicon Valley area (Fremont, Milpitas, San Jose and Sunnyvale). This is the first one in San Diego
By the way, I was able to sneak in a few shots in here. I was scolded by the cashier when paying for our snacks for snapping a shot. I don't think she knew how many I really took, but I did apologize and put away my camera. They'll probably we watching their instore camera tapes later wondering who the suspicious character was. Actually, I hope not, ha ha.
As you walk in there are big bags of rice on your right and in the middle of a small take out area featuring Indian sweets and snacks. There are dry and canned goods in the middle aisles...
We perused the various snacks, spices, seasonings, and prepared foods. The workers here were really nice, offering help to customers who appeared non-Indian (like us, ha ha).
Various packs of dry snacks like fried chips, beans, and other crunchy good stuff.
Oils - coconut, mustard, and ghee (clarified butter), which is used heavily in Indian cuisine. There were even bigger jars of ghee towards the bottom (not pictured). Like GINORMOUS jars!
I was fascinated with all of the different sauces and seasonings here.
These products were in the Health and Beauty aisle.
The back wall of the store had frozen items while the far left had the fresh produce. These bins held turmeric, green beans, cute round eggplants, and chili peppers.
These had dried tamarind pods, ginger, garlic, coconuts, and a few other items I didn't recognize.
I thought this was cool - the Idli maker (idli is a steamed rice and lentil cake seen in South Indian cooking). I had them before at the now defunct Banana Leaf South Indian Kitchen in Hillcrest.
We were attracted to these ice creams called 'kulfis'.
The display in the middle had woven plastic mats, much like the "banig" (the Philippine version).
The few items that we bought. One kulfi was missing since the cashier was ringing it up...
This place is not even on yelp yet and I couldn't find a phone number (or maybe I didn't look hard enough). The website seems to be an online store.
Namaste Plaza Indian Supermarket
9160 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126
www.namasteplaza.com
A cultural note - "Namaste" is a greeting and parting salutation in India. It is derived from Sanskrit and is a combination of two words, "Namah" and "te". "Namah" beans "bow" and "te" means "to you", therefore it means "salutations to you". It is common to bow slightly with your hands pressed slightly and your fingers pointing upwards (like your hands are forming a "steeple") when greeting someone.
Up next...our desserts from Namaste.
3 comments:
This place looks cool. I'll have to check it out. I've seen that hazelnut Kit Kat also available at North Park Produce. I love checking out the ice cream section but I've learned to never get anything flavored with flowers.
I didn't even hear about this place opening until your photos. Now I really want to check it out
hi darlene - yeah, it's very clean, new and spic and span right now! unfortunately, the hazel nut kitkat melted because i left it on top of our dryer at home, so i refroze it. it probably looks really gross and misshapen but i'm determined to still eat it, ha ha.
hi kirbie - i have cathy to thank for that. she told me there was a new Indian supermarket there but the last time she was in the area, it wasn't open yet. you should see it and try their ice cream bars (kulfis).
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