Tuesday, January 5th, 2010, shortly after 6:00 a.m. I get in the drivers seat of Sonal's van for the drive to Los Angeles, California. The reason for our short two-day trip was to visit the suppliers that keep her store stocked with Indian and British goods. Thanks to the one hour time zone difference between Arizona and California we arrived at the first supplier before 11:00 am. Nirav is near the downtown L.A. area and Sonal is here to say hello, order Ready to Eat items, and to see what's new. Next up is India Imports who, we learn, are also handling Deep Frozen Foods. Sonal usually orders Deep Foods from New Jersey, this offers the opportunity to save a little on shipping – if this distributor can consistently have what she needs in inventory.
South on the 110 freeway we go to Gardena, home of Kostas International to pick up flour. Not just any flour, though, most Hindus have their favorite brand of flour or Atta as it is known. We were picking up 320 pounds of Sujata Atta, a whole wheat flour popular for making chapati and roti. By now we are starving, it is just past 2:30 pm as we hop back on the 110 south to the 91 freeway east exiting at Pioneer Blvd. in Artesia to visit Little India for something to eat. Lunch is a couple of Indo-Chinese dishes fixed for us by the owner of Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se. In the same plaza we also visit Ajay at Little India Market Place. Sonal and I met Ajay when he was working for Nirav some years ago he now owns and operates this small grocery with a beautiful display of garlands as you walk in.
House of Spice – the granddaddy of and apparent current giant in the Indian food distribution arena was the last business stop of the day. While I enjoy the hospitality of all the business owners who invite me in to look into their operations, it is definitely House of Spice that is the most welcoming, open, and helpful in explaining the current trends and situations regarding the logistics and market conditions that surround the Indian grocery distribution world as it pertains to the western United States. I would like to share with you what I learned but I suppose that for those of you with no interest in the mechanics of this industry, it would be boring. It's nearly dark as we wrap up our visit while the workers at House of Spice rush to empty a container of food that arrived the day before from India.
Our hotel is the Rodeway Inn on Artesia Blvd – they have four Indian channels available on the TV in the room. We check in and just as quickly as we drop our bags we get back in the van and head back to Pioneer Blvd. At Sukhadia Sweets Sonal buys something special for her and her girls and I bought some coconut and cardamom burfi for Caroline.
Ziba Music & Gift was still where they have always been, it was encouraging to see them still in business after so many other music resellers have gone out of business. Ziba sells music, movies, and Indian musical instruments. The music on offer ranges from bhangra to Bollywood and carnatic to lounge. I was here to pick up a copy of the soundtrack to Veer Zaara, after listening to it for so many years it was time to support the industry and buy a copy.
Dinner was at Ras Raj, I had the Manchurian Sizzler and Sonal went for the Chole Bhatura – mine was better although that is only my perspective. As we waited for our order half a dozen other dishes pictured on the walls inspired me to want each of them. Being in Little India it is difficult to pass up dessert, especially when faaluda is on offer and so I didn't pass on faaluda – yum.
Last stop of the day, of what by now was becoming a very long day – NAZ8. What is a NAZ8? It is a movie theater a few miles away from Little India that specializes in movies from Bollywood. We were here to watch 3 Idiots starring Amir Khan. While older Hindus would argue that the golden age of Bollywood was in the 50s and 60s, for Caroline and I it began in the mid 90s and ended in 2009. 3 Idiots was a good film, great laughs, great acting, even from Kareena Kapoor. The problem is for me that Bollywood is going the way of Hollywood, as in American Pie kind of humor. Not that the Masala film has gotten to that level yet, but the ground work is being laid. For the first time in a Bollywood movie I have seen, men are seen from behind relieving themselves at the urinal while other men are filmed from overhead sitting on the toilet – all of this as part of one of the musical numbers. If you don't know Bollywood, then you don't know how revolutionary this is. All the same, three hours later we are leaving the theater and I'm thinking 3 Idiots was pretty good.
Without an alarm or wake up call I'm up early, turn on the TV and check the Indian stations. Cricket, cricket, soap opera, and an old movie. I decide against the absurd chase scenes in this movie not featuring an actor I can recognize and tune in the news about cricket. I don't particularly like cricket, or sports for that matter, but the difference of it all and the great lettering in the onscreen graphics had me entranced for a short time. Starbucks called me from across the street and soon I was replenishing my caffeine stores.
Ajay over at Little India Market Place told us that Rani Foods wasn't far away so they were our first stop of the day. Another good place to find out more interesting facts regarding FDA involvement with food suppliers in India, embargos against particular products, who is really behind some of the popular brands Indians insist are the best, and how the Indian food industry is changing.
At Piccadilly Imports we spend a good part of the day with Emma and Ben, learning why certain British foods are at times impossible to find in the American market. Be warned, lovers of Smarties, the FDA has banned Smarties in the U.S. until the blue Smarties are removed, as the food coloring is not approved for the American market. Later Ben shows me a cherry red 1961 Porsche parked in the warehouse which he has restored. It seems that the food industry is about to take the backseat as he looks to expand his time into more 'me' time and maybe less career time. Emma takes her time to walk around the shelves while we slowly shop and check out some products we knew nothing of, such as the case of award winning Scottish Haggis made in America that will now be on the shelves of Indo Euro Foods in Phoenix, Arizona.
The last distributor to visit is on the edge of the downtown Los Angeles area, Samra Produce. Samra specializes in Indian and Oriental vegetables. If you are in need of guvar, tindoora, bitter melon, Thai chilies, Indian eggplant, or sinqua, Samra likely has it – as long as it's in season. With the vegetables loaded into the van we are once again heading back to Little India.
Lunch was at Tangy Tomato on Pioneer Blvd. We had the buffet and while I would have enjoyed the foods being warmer than they were, they were well spiced, flavorful, and all around pretty good. The Sag Paneer was my favorite as was the hot fresh garlic naan. With stomachs full we head back over to House of Spice to pick up a few items they packed up for us, the van is almost full. Around the corner we meet up with the girls of Nanak Foods as Sonal has a client with an immediate need for paneer that cannot wait for her next shipment. It is now getting late, there is no way to avoid the afternoon rush hour as millions clog the freeways on their way home. It takes us almost two hours to finally get through the 50 miles of traffic jam and see a break on the road that allows us to start driving home faster than 25 miles per hour. It's midnight when we get back to Phoenix.