Cooking American in Bangalore

After living in the US for several years, I got used to the abundance of food products available and easy access to almost all the cuisines in the world. Now, living in Bangalore/India has its impact on the foods we get to eat. Being a cooking enthusiast, I am learning where to find the right stuff in Bangalore to make the foods I am used to.

It took me a few months of visiting several food stores to figure some of the basics. I hope to cover my experiences and hopefully provide a guide to other readers about how and where to find the things you will need for various cuisines.

I will try to break it down by sections as much as possible.

Finding baking products in Bangalore

1. Baking powder - easily available in any small self-service grocery store. Comes in marked boxes. Dry Yeast & gelatin are also easy to find in most big stores.

2. Baking soda - Not too obvious. Although available in most grocery stores - they are in clear plastic packs (very close to salt and sugar) and its usually marked just "soda". Best is to for Soda or cooking Soda, and the grocer will be able to locate it for you.

3. Pam spray and the likes - Spray oil is not quite here in India yet. Best is buy a Misto or other spray devices. Or stick with the good old way of oil and sprinkling flour.

4. Flour - This is a very challenging area and I have not yet figured this one out . Refined flour is called "Maida". Maida is very very easy to find in almost any food store. But, I have not even come close to finding different types of flour. I have not seen any bread flour, self-rising flour, unbleached flour etc. If you are a homemade bread person - then you are in for some level of disappointment. In fact the same holds true for store bought bread. Very few choices and barely any fresh baked rolls. Most of what is available it is sliced bread. I have seen some decent Baguettes and french bread in big fancy stores like SPAR. I have not found any Rye, sourdough, italian bread etc.

5. Chocolate chips - You get the general Hersheys chocolate chips. I have not seen anything other than the basic milk chocolate ones. No unsweetened, no caramel chips, no dark chocolate :-( You get a decent variety of European cooking chocolates and cocoa powder.

6. Filling - I find a few cans of strawberry filling, may be an occasional peach or mango. Cranberries are almost unheard of. In general - findind berries in any form is a bit tough.

7. Herbs - I have not yet found good variety of fresh herbs. In the fresh category - you can find cilantro, curry leaves, mint and maybe some chives (rarely). Other than this, rest has to be dried herbs. Dried herbs are available in most big stores like Foodworld, Spar etc.

That is all I have for now on the baking needs aisle. Will write more on finding the groceries you need in the City of Bangalore!