stores for sourcing ingredients for Mexican and Thai cooking

Where can I get cornmeal or polenta meal, chipotle chilies and prickly pear jam/nectar for Mexican dishes AND dried kaffir lime leaves, glass noodles, cellophane noodles and silken tofu for Thai recipes in Delhi? The "makkki ka atta" is too fine to use in polenta recipes and in Mexican recipes. I would be grateful if someone told me about the best shops/stores for sourcing these items. Thanks in advance.

I purchased polenta meal in Modern Bazaar (Basant Lok) last year. Dimly remember they also had glass noodles. As for chipotle and kaffir lime leaves....think you should forget about them or import them yourself (easily doable in luggage). If you do find some, let me know, I love cooking Thai food myself but with all the ingredients (lemon grass, kaffir zest, leaves, galangal, thai basil...) it's impossible here.

re glass noodles, try asking for "falooda" noodles.

I saw polenta in of all places a small petrol station speed mart, and at a Spencer's grocery store. The former was a pleasant surprise; they even had arborio rice there. So interesting to see the selection at some of the small stores in India, it's like a treasure hunt.

I've posted links before to health food stores in Delhi. I'd guess they'd have cornmeal, but like dillichaat said, the Thai ingredients are going to be more of a challenge.

I love Thai and some of the Mexican food (except for the heavy cheese) and enjoy cooking both.

I see an opportunity for growing lemon grass, kaffir zest, leaves, galangal, thai basil...how do I go about getting the seeds? I have a large enough garden and a maali (gardner) that I can try some experiments.

Any suggestions will be highly appreciated - who knows if it succeeds this could lead to a whole new career since I love gardening - playing with soil. I fond it very therapeutic.

Sometime in the future, I plan to settle in Mysore City and it might have the right climate I suppose.

Cheers

Nattusbs

For the seeds etc the only option imho would be Thailand or one of the neighboring countries. For the kaffir lime tree you'll need to bring a graft. Lemongrass you can source in south India, see this link. If you do it officially: plant quarantine in India will make your life hell, it can take up to 2 years to get all permits. Obviously if you don't ask them anything the process gets expedited considerably.

I haven't looked at the requirements for the plants but considering Thailand I guess they need a warm, humid climate without too many temperature extremes. Hence I don't think it would work here in Delhi but you can better judge how Mysore will be in that respect. I think a state like Kerala should come very close. I also find tending to plants calming. Had a collection of 60 botanic orchid species in a self designed greenhouse (ventilation, temperature, humidity, shading) before coming to India but gave them away to other collectors b/c I knew it just couldn't work in the Delhi climate. Good luck!

There is an excellent farm in Moodabidri near Mangalore run by the Soans brothers. They grow all kinds of exotic tropical fruit and herbs and can supply you with lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal etc. I am sure they would be happy to send you planting material through courier. You can get lemongrass slips in almost all good nurseries in the metros of India. Contact Irwin Soans at:

Mob:09449836361
E-mail:ivsoans@gmail.com

For seeds of Thai basil and Thai chilis you can try ordering online from Kitazawa Seeds---www.kitazawaseed.com-- if you use a credit card. Else a friend in the U.S. could send you the seeds from the Kitazawa catalog. Good luck and keep us all posted about your gardening adventures. Cheers! Tulsi

Nice products from Kitazawa but beware when ordering from India as you need a ton of paperwork if you want to import those seeds according to the rules. Sourcing it from within India looks like the easiest -legal- solution and the info about the Mangalore vendor looks promising. I'd give it a try but alas, the climate here in Delhi is not suitable and anyway I'll be out of here in 18 months.

If you can buy some lemon grass, I believe it's easy to propagate. I'm trying a few things here but I think the problem is humidity. Basil should be easy. If anything that I'm trying grows, I'll be away on my 2 months holiday when it's ready. Good luck....

Tulsi, most of the stuff you mentioned I saw yesterday in the Le Marché supermarket in DLF mall, Saket, delhi. A veritable treasure trove for other than indian cuisine and at affordable prices too.

INA market is a one stop shop, have almost everything

Sauces(Ready to mix sauces, seasoning etc)
Spices
Veggies (including Lemongrass, Kaffir Lime, Galangal, Jalapenos etc)

I think i even saw some american dish wash liquids for that matter !!