This past weekend, Rich and I went on a samosa run. We usually go once every couple of months and because of this, I STOCK UP. I love having two fridges (well, four including his) and a chest freezer. We went to three places. The last place was by "accident", but it worked out in our favour...
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| Samosas from A1 Sweets |
Our first top was A1 Sweets & Restaurant, which serves 100% vegetarian. This is our usual place to go get samosa, which are literally the size of my palm. They are packed full of potatoes and veg and seasoned perfectly. You can tell that each little bundle is made by hand. They are usually cooked to order, so you get them fresh from the fryer! I like that they also include a green (herb chutney) and a red sauce (tamarind sauce) free of charge. The prices are really good- they use to be 3 for $1 but they're now 2 for $1 which is understandable considering how the cost of living has risen. This is Rich's favourite place to go! We were going to get more, but it was 15 minutes to closing and they only had 4 left. We bought them and ate one in the car.
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| Samosas from Samosa King |
This was our second stop. Samosa King (Embassy Restaurant) located literally 5 minutes away from A1. Their specials are crazy good and the best part is getting samosas and other fried Indian goodies 5 for a $1.00. I'm not even kidding you! There's usually a long line up to order and I'm not surprised. Their samosas are excellent! Granted, they're smaller and obviously have less filling than A1 and they don't give you complimentary sauces (25¢/a small container)...but hey..they are FIVE for a DOLLAR. The staff are fast and efficient and on Tuesdays and Fridays, they offer $2 take out meals. You can't really go wrong with that. In the photo above, there are 30 samosas. See, having a chest freezer is awesome!
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| An assortment of samosas and fried goodies from Datta |
Across the (small) parking lot, we passed by a new 100% vegetarian/vegan Indian store selling similar goodies. It was called Datta Food. I could tell they were pretty new, so we stopped by just to take a look around. The lady behind the counter was cheery and nice. She explained to us what they had on the menu and told us that their samosas and other fried snacks were also 5 for $1.00. Competition! Awesome! As we thanked her for her time and began to leave, she waved us back in and told us to wait. She was preparing a sampler bag (!) I can't even begin to tell you what the traditional names of these are, but that triangle and empanada looking morsels are samosas. I don't know if they are handmade or not, as they look quite different from the above samosas. Their filling wans't the best, so I'd skip those, but the rest was really good. That round tim-bit looking one in the front there is sweet- possibly made from chickpea flour? I'd go back and order everything else, just not for samosas. If you get the chance, check out all three places!
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| Dried chili peppers |
After, we stopped by Rich's friend's place to pick up some things I bought and had sent to the hotel. While we were there he showed us two giant bags of
chilies be bought while in the U.S.! We got a little baggy full to take home
and try. (I'm also going to see if I can grow them.. lol) These little
things are pretty darn spicy. The bag said it was about a 7 out of 10 on
the fire scale. We'll see about that...!
