The Joys of Shopping

Living in Singapore has been a very interesting experience for us as far as shopping goes.  We are finding that one can find almost anything they want or something similar to what they are looking for if they know where to look and if they are willing to pay.  For example a jar of pickles might cost $7.00 for a small jar, how bad do you want pickles? 

There really are some American brands over here that are surprising to find, Tide laundry detergent, Earthbound Organics, Nestle is big over here but the ingredients list is different than that of the U.S. brand, no corn syrup, and fewer preservatives are present across the board, even Coke and Pepsi do not have corn syrup in them however the Hinze ketchup does.

Ok so today I wanted to find a spice called "Bengali Five Spice" or "panch phoron" so that we could make this Red Lentil Dal recipe for next weeks dinner.  It calls for this particular spice.

  Since this is an Indian recipe I thought no problem I will just go to the wet market in Little India and get it.

 Tekka Market is a very large and old wet market in Singapore and is located in Little India, there is a lot of activity and a lot of noise and you truly feel as though you are in another country, like India.  I have taken all of guests there and they will tell you it is an overwhelming experience.

I found this store selling traditional Indian ware as I was walking, you can get a whole out fit for $25.00 and they are gorgeous so I diverted my spice search to talk to the shop owner and try on a few things.  She did not have anything I liked but I was able to ask her about the spice.  She had no idea what I was talking about but said that if it is a spice then I should go to Selvi because he has "everything Indian" in there.

 And so I found the store.

Upon walking in I was met with a blank stare from the store owner, this is common as I was in an area where the locals shop in fact a lot of restaurants come here for supplies, we frequently get stared at as we are a bit out of place.  I asked him about the spice mix, showed him the proper name on my I phone and he had no idea what I was talking about.

At this point sweat is running down my face and really..... I could have just given up but the dress shop lady told me that "everything Indian" was in this store and I was standing right there  so I again said "spice" to him.

 Ah ha!  A light bulb went on and he understood what I was asking so he pointed to a corner of the store and..... stared.

I went to the corner, here it is

to find a bunch of boxes stacked up and yes, they had bags of spices in them

and so the search began, the problem I had was that these bags did not have any names on them! I am not really sure what I am looking for, only that it has five kinds of spices in it so I searched for a bag of mixed spices and came up with this

it looks like there is about five different kinds of things in there so this must be it right?? I sure hope so as it is a big bag.

   I did see a man in the store who was from India but spoke some English so I asked him what this is used for, he said to make curry so I figure I have the right thing, we will see when I try to make our Dal. 

I also was able to find our red lentils a big bag for $2.00 and I found some coriander powder that I had been looking for and have not been able to find for a few months now. 

I know it is coriander because is says so on the bag.

  My bill was just over $3.00 so yes I will go to this shop again but I will make sure to leave plenty of time in my schedule to search for what I need and I may need to look up some pictures on line before going so I know what I am looking for.