Dinner @ Brothers Pizza on Taraval + another OBSF sunset

Fast forward a few hours later...

We were back near Andytown #2, but we weren't here for coffee...

Indian Food Crawl - Surati Farsan Mart, Akshar Cash & Carry, Bawarchi Dosa, Miramar Cash & Carry + even more flavors @ Kwality Ice Cream

It's been awhile since we tried Indian food...

This time TC and I were joined by a friend, his wife and daughter along with two other friends (a couple) for their first Indian food crawl...

Return to Miramar Cash & Carry + more flavors from Kwality Ice Cream

While our original plan was to try a new neveria down south, I suddenly realized that hey...we're near Mira Mesa...

aaaand both Bert and TC were with me...

Snacks and more from Vinh Hung & Namaste Plaza Markets

Later that same morning, I headed up to the Manila Mira Mesa area to run a few errands...

I specifically wanted to go to the Vietnamesemarket behind the Tar-jay store...

India Snacks & Groceries

Located not too far from Cream Pan was this Indian market that TC spied earlier.

She was attracted to the Thrifty Ice Cream sign so we made a mental note to drop by on our way out...

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...

Namaste Plaza Indian Supermarket

Located in the same strip mall as Pho Cow Cali is the relatively new Namaste Plaza Indian Supermarket.

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

Alerted to this by the ever knowledgeable Cathy of mmm-Yoso fame, I thought this would be a good opportunity to check it out...

Banana Leaf South Indian Kitchen & Chocolat revisited

[Closed] 

This weekend I had the pleasure of having lunch with one of my friends, the Prof (the female one). I got to pick, so I chose Banana Leaf in Hillcrest. Plus, it was her treat and I had a coupon!

To refresh your memory, here are my previous posts:
Prom dinner with the co-workers this past June and my first visit with TORC after watching "The Runaways" back in March...

I love this wall - there are beautiful lanterns hanging parallel to a water feature. We sat at the very end of this fountain/wall.

Unfortunately I don't remember what this was. I originally wanted another appetizer but the waiter recommended this instead because it had "more pieces". So I took his rec and we ended up liking it. It's not on their website menu, and since I wasn't expecting to order this, I didn't take a photo of the inner menu. These were so delicious. They were like fried rolls (some sort of flatbread) sliced on the bias and filled with spiced vegetables. There was also yogurt sauce and little crunchy fried noodles on top. The sauce was a mixture of tamarind and mint.

This was the "poori" - two puffy whole wheat breads that are fried and served with a side of mint sauce. Damn, this was good! These were like two bread pillows!  When I tore open the bread, the hot air rushed out and it deflated somewhat. I could have eaten both of these! Fried bread = delicious!

I chose the Masala Dosa - the rice based crepe was filled with spicy mashed potatoes and served with a side of warm sambar chutney and a coconut dip (I didn't try it because the Prof said it was sweet). This dosa looked narrower than the one TORC and I had back in March (which had a different dip as well).

The Prof chose and eggplant dish which came with a side of rice. Again, this item is not listed on their online menu for some reason but it is on their menu in the restaurant. Duh. Wish I could remember the name of this. This dish, which not only had eggplant but carrots, tomatoes and onions, was really flavorful. I ended up taking the leftovers home...

Oh my (insert diety here) - take a look at that!

And just like TORC and I did back in March and me and Bert in September, we headed over to Chocolat for dessert. Not shown in this photo were scores of walkers for the 3-day Breast Cancer Walk. Lots of folks, men and women, wearing pink (some in rather outlandish costumes) and garnering honks of support from passerbys. They were everywhere that day!

Although the desserts looked tempting, we had our sights set on...

the gelato! I sampled the Spicy Chocolate, which was just Chocolate gelato infused with cayene pepper. You feel the kick but I didn't want to eat a whole cup of that.

The Prof sampled Pistachio, Grand Marnier, and Tiramisu before deciding on Grand Marnier.

The one I chose was the Chocolate Hazelnut (in photo above, it's the second to the bottom right corner while the corner is the Grand Marnier which is garnished with candied orange rinds).

I could taste the ground up hazelnuts in my gelato! It was so good! Makes me want to go back for more!

Totally unrelated to this post but here's the song running through my mind. Came across it on an old random CD mix I made awhile ago:

Thanksgiving is coming up. I have yet to even attempt a turkey, I'll leave that to my mom or brother. I sure as hell as not going to do it this year. Side dishes and dessert are my specialty. Gotta plan what I'll be making...

Ker

[Update - Closed]

After Vinh Hung, we went to the Little India Mall on Camino Ruiz. I noticed that the Indian Buffett (I think it was called India/Asia buffet or something) has now been changed to India Princess. It was located across from our destinatio, Ker Market in search of the elusive fenugreek spice.
We hadn't been in awhile so I was curious to see what was new and what delicacies (or junk/snack food) we would end up bringing home.These were in the snack aisle...Some of these are pretty damn hot! These spices will burn your throat and make it painful to speak.

The sweets aisle:

Pickled peppers and mangos:

More pickles:

Mango syrup in a freaky bear bottle:

A ha! Here they are! A bottle of the fenugreek only set me back $1.99 - I plan to give it to my co-worker as a little surprise. I hope she uses it. That was the small bottle too. There was a big-ass industrial size one for $8.99. The only reason I know about fenugreek is from our old spice rack from our wedding. The spice rack in which I only used a few spices then it gathered dust until I threw it away more than 5 years later. I digress...The real reason I remember fenugreek is that Superman ate some on a dare. We were still living in our apartment in Mission Valley and the guys were hanging out and Superman was looking at the spice rack and wondering what the hell fenugree was and what it tasted like. The expression on his face was priceless. He ended up spitting it out. I've never used the spice myself.

These statues were atop a small vegetable display watching over the customers who rummaged through the ginger roots, onions, garlic and potato bins

There was another section in this market (it's huge by the way since it's also a warehouse) of ready made foods. So many choices!

I bought this last time. Soan Papdi is a sweet made of flour, clarified butter, pistachios and spices and is made during Diwali (Festival of Lights).

I think this is the same potato chip that I bought last time. These really aren't potato chips that are sliced potatos, but rather, potato flour formed into chips and coated with a most incendiary blend of spices. These will also burn your throat, but they taste so good!~

Bert chose this "All in One' snack mix with nuts, chips and fruits. I chose the peanut balls with caramelized sugar.

This spice mix cost about $3 or $4 (I'd need to look at the receipt again) and this one's for me to figure out how to use.Here's the fenugreek for my co-worker:

Another one of Bert's snack choices - spicy nutz!

Close up of the peanut balls. These look like they would make my teeth hurt.

It was fun so far seeing two different markets. We were off to one more!