Need Indian? Assad has it all! 3 May 2006

I know I recently said that Yamazaki has it all. But that’s for Japanese ingredients! If you need authentic Indian spices, chutneys and preserves, snacks, cookware, and so much more, then Assad is the place to be.

Entering Assad, your senses are assaulted by the mixed smells of spices, incense, curry. It is chock full of everything Indian. We ended up staying several hours, looking, smelling, tasting … and buying!

Just some of our loot. We ate everything else!

Edibles
We immediately made our way to spice heaven – an entire aisle full of packets of every imaginable spice I know is available. Not in some cutesy looking McCormick vials – packs of ¼ kilo up to kilos and kilos for serious home cooking! We went stir crazy because all these Indian dishes that I’ve been looking up online now suddenly became possible! Yay!

I finally find my green cardomom pods (yippee!), fenugreek, coriander seed, rai … and so many more that I don’t even know how to use. There’s even black salt! There was also pistachios and almonds. Then there are some standard Indian spice mixes too – we quickly snatched up some garam masala so we don’t have to fiddle around with the proportions.

Now, what was really exciting was finding freshly made yoghurt (30 pesos), unsalted and and so flexible for anything from curries to desserts. There was also paneer (small pack about 100 pesos), an unsalted cheese which is good for curry dishes. There were also freshly made lassis (20 pesos). All the milk products are made from carabao’s milk.

All the different lentils are available. Our personal favorite is the quickly cooked Masoor dal variety which is light orange and thin and flat.

Whole wheat flours! Sold by kilo, or even in sacks.

If you aren’t into cooking, you can buy precooked things in cans or convenience packs (desserts and savouries). This is fast food Indian which you can cook in your own home!

I recommend you buy some preserved lemons (only 150 pesos for a huge plastic container), or mango chutney (about 75 pesos), green chilli preserve (75 pesos). These would work beautifully for dipping with pappads.

Or you can opt to try out their snack bar, like we did. There’s an array of Indian sweets and goodies, all shapes, sizes and colors – small milk balls topped with pistachios, sweet breads, deep fried vegetable samosas, rotis and chapatis. We picked up some roti canai (20 pesos each, we had that for dinner along with curry sauce we whipped up with some spices and the yoghurt.)

Non-edibles
Incense! No silly green apple scents here! I got a little giddy smelling every incense scent in sight. I stuck to rose for the meantime. You can get incense holders here too (copper, ceramic, you name it).

Cookware! Sieves, stainless steel ware (bowls typical of Indian style dining), cooking implements (pots, pans).

Assad is the main grocery. But there is an entire stretch of other Indian stores too. Prices don’t vary much but you can get more choices of the goodies.

We left several hours later … munching on some crunchy deep-friend, spicy cumin-tasting chickpea flour snacks (40 pesos) and sipping on lassis, the scent of rose incense on my clothes and my hair.  And the resolve that this was just our first trip here!

I couldn’t believe they’ve been around so long.
I could kick myself for paying for overpriced Indian food!

N.B.
I got a glimpse of Assad during one of our drives to/from Mommy’s in Manila. I really didn’t take much notice as we weren’t into Indian cooking that much. But the name came up again when we bought some pappads and spices from Rustan’s – Assad is the distributor of most if not all their Indian foodstuffs. When I wrote about Swagat, I asked for recommendations of other Indian restaurants and lo and behold … the “Indian place across Unilever” was mentioned.

Did you know, I’ve been secretly stealing whiffs of cardomom ever since we bought the stuff. Heavenly!

Assad Mini Mart
Midtown Executive Homes (across Unilever)
1268-I. J K United Nations Ave.
Paco, Manila