The White Hat Guide to Indian, Pakistani & Sri Lankan food stores & ingredients in Melbourne

If you have trouble finding an Indian food store in Melbourne, try looking for an Indian video store. Nearly all Indian food stores sell or hire Indian videos, and most Indian video stores also sell cooking ingredients. So why not settle down to watch a Bollywood musical while enjoying the rogan josh you have whipped up with your newfound ingredients.

Most fresh food markets will carry staples like ocra, fresh ginger, chillies, coriander, mints, limes, coconut, legumes and snake beans. Better markets such as the Vic Market will also have fresh galangal, lime leaves and curry leaves.

Most supermarkets will stock basic ingredients and spices such as fennel, coriander, cinnamon sticks, cummin, cassia bark, cinnamon, nutmeg, ghee, tamarind paste, cardamom, cloves, fenugreek, fennel, turmeric, coconut milk, dessicated coconut, sesame seeds, yoghurt, pappadams, saffron strands, poppy seeds, paprika, nuts, sesame oil as well as a variety of commercial curry powders, pastes and chutneys.

However, if you are serious about your Indian cooking you will need to visit an Indian food store from time to time. Not only will you find a greater range and variety, most of the spices will be fresher - very important for good Indian food. The larger packets of spices also usually offer a substantial cost saving on the small supermarket packages.

The best starting point for Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Nepalese and Bangladeshi food in Melbourne is the suburb of Dandenong. The stores there will often also sell fresh ingredients for countries whose cuisine has been strongly influenced by Indians, such as the Pacific Islands, Mauritius and South Africa.

Larger Indian food stores will offer a wide choice of curry powders and pastes, chutneys (often home made), flours (besan, atta), odiyal, pea, rices (Basmati, Dehra Dun, ponni, idli, jasmine, jeera, hara masuri), semolinas , peppercorns, black and yellow mustard seeds, dhals (channa, masoor, mung, urid, mattar toor) , oils (sesame, gingelly, mustard), cardamoms, and lentils.

Also mace, kalonji (nigella) seeds, rose water, jaggery, ajowan seeds, amchoor powder, kitul, silver and gold leaf, kokum, Kewra water, palm sugar, asafoetida, Maldive fish, rampe, coconut vinegar, woodapple cream, and some stores sell freshly made string hoppers. Fresh Indian vegetables such as bitter gourd (karela) and avarekkai may be harder to find but most of the stores below will at least stock frozen packs of them.

Hindustan Imports
50 Greens Road, Dandenong South

Arora Spices
21 Nicholson Street, Brunswick East

Truspice
145 Carinish Road, Clayton

Arasan Imports & Exports
23 Koornang Road, Carnegie

and a number of Indian food store clustered in 'Little India' near Dandenong Station.

Numbers of Indian take-aways also sell a selection of ingredients, so if you are in the city and need to top-up on your spices, try Curry Corner at 188 Russell Street (near Little Bourke Street).

The White Hat Food & Wine Map of Melbourne and Regional Victoria

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