January, 2009: Assorted Indian groceries

Redcliffe's come a long way since I grew up there - it now boasts its own Indian grocery! My mum raided their shelves at Christmas time and picked out a few treats for Michael and I, wrapping them up in a cheerful ecosilk bag. Throughout January we've enjoyed slowly making our way through them...

First on trial was this khatta mitha mix. I think khatta mitha means 'sweet and sour' which is certainly how it tastes - though chilli is listed as an ingredient, it's barely hot at all. The mix of legumes isn't quite as crunchy as we'd like, though it improves when stored in the fridge!

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How would you pronounce Grapetiser? Combining 'grape' and 'appetiser' into a single trademark doesn't quite work. Never mind, carbonating grape juice does work - it's delicious.

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These badam halwa come individually wrapped. They're extremely sweet (65.99% sugar, in fact!) with a gelatinous texture (don't worry, the jellifying ingredients are plant-based). I expected them to be milky but they're not at all; more like a firmer, more dense piece of Turkish delight.

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This packet of farari chevda-tikha has the sweet and sour flavours of the khatta mitha, with a little more chilli besides. It's mostly made up of crispy fried potatoes and dotted with sultanas and peanuts.

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Finally, there are Jelly Tots (again, with a vegetarian gelling agent). Though the colours alleged to represent different flavours (orange, lemon, lime, grape and 'tutti frutti'), they taste mostly of sugar.

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It's been fun snacking our way through this bag of treats that we'd be unlikely to buy for ourselves. We probably won't be making any of them regular additions to our diet, but I'll be regularly appreciating the bag - unlike the ubiquitous 'green bags', it scrunches down perfectly into my backpack each workday, ready to be filled with more mundane groceries on my evening walk home.