Spice Stores in New York

While I promise that I'll also include references to stores in my recipes, I thought it might be helpful to summarize some of the best stores for crazy ingredients that I've found so far. Besides, it's more than likely that you'll start finding other recipes and want to know where to go to find things like white peppercorn. I didn't even know that existed until I saw a recipe for Kerala Porkchops. A slight digression, but now I'm ready :).

Little India- both a neighborhood and a store. The store is fairly small, but has a very large spice selection. It also has a great section of pickles. Now, these are not our Kosher deli pickles. We're talking about mangos pickled in chili sauce, lemons, limes, and all sorts of other delectable if unfamiliar jars of preserved exotica. You can click on the link to get directions, or take the 6 train to 28th street and walk one block.

Kalustyan's
A huge grocery store, with everything you could ever imagine, including a great deal of Middle Eastern ingredients. They have just as many spices, if not more, than Little India. They also have an incredible selection of dried fruits, ranging from blueberries to dates, as well as a great variety of rice and pulses. The back of the store has fabulous frozen goods, including Armenian lahmajun (sort of like a pizza made on pita bread), kibbeh (a delicious dish that's best described as a dumpling made of bulghur wheat with a ground meat center), every kind of yogurt ever imaginable, and much more. There's also a good amount of cooking ware, such as frying pans to make dosa (a South Indian pancake), idli trays, spice grinders, and things I wasn't quite sure the function of.

Grace's Marketplace
This is more like a specialty foodstore. It does, however, have a variety of spices that are rather surprising. It's on 3rd avenue and 71st street, and is not as expensive as the neighborhood might make you assume.

Another great place to try for specialty Middle Eastern food on the Upper East Side is Melangé, on 1st Avenue between 68th and 69th. Although not consistent, it often has things like saffron threads, coriander powder and cinnamon sticks. Their prepared food is terrific too, especially the hummus and eggplant dishes. They also have some great varieties of tea and dried fruit.