Eat First

The Curd Nerd, Syracuse

Here’s some grate news: The Eastwood neighborhood of Syracuse now has a cheese shop. That cheese shop is The Curd Nerd.

For months, Sarah Starace and her fiance, Matthew Simiele, have been renovating the wedge-shaped storefront at the corner of James Street and Collingwood Avenue into a bright and welcoming space. The walls are painted a buttery yellow and the space is filled with greenery from Found Things Co., a plant shop that has taken root a couple doors down Collingwood. 

One of Sarah’s goals with her shop is to stock as many local cheeses as possible and support local cheesemaking. That makes me happy on so many levels. 

The shop is in the “soft open’’ stage, with a grand opening planned for later in the month. Early offerings include chevre, feta and other goat cheeses from Lively Run Goat Dairy and cheddars and blue cheese from Muranda Cheese Company, both in the Finger Lakes.

Do you like spreadable cheeses? Then Sarah recommends the everything bagel-seasoned Quark cheese from Shults Family Farm in the Mohawk Valley. Quark is a soft farmers cheese that’s perfect for schmearing on crackers, toast and bagels and used as a dip for vegetables. Another soft cheese Sarah recommends is the Harbison from Jasper Hill Creamery in Vermont. It’s an oozy, bloomy-rind cheese that’s wrapped in spruce bark, which gives the cheese an earthy flavor. You might want a baguette to go with this cheese.

Other local/regional cheeses include Jake’s original gouda and Jake’s smoked gouda from Oneida County, Alpine-style cheeses from East Hill Creamery in Perry, and offerings from Old Chatham Creamery, which started out in the Hudson Valley and is now based in Groton. Selections in the case will change regularly, as Sarah figures out what her customers want.

Why cheese? Why Eastwood? And why now?

Sarah is a native of Queens who started out at Binghamton University on a pre-med track thinking she would become a doctor. For fun, she helped to establish the Binghamton University Cheese Club, a group of students who sampled different cheeses every week and spread their love for cheese on campus through activities and events. Sarah ended up getting a degree in cell and molecular biology and told her family and friends she planned to become a cheesemonger. She considers cheese her calling and is working to become a Certified Cheese Professional through the American Cheese Society.

Sarah met Matthew at Binghamton and they moved to Syracuse after graduation (he’s an electrical engineer). She worked at Wegmans for a time and considered working as a farmhand to learn more about the dairy industry. Then the pandemic happened. They bought a house in Eastwood and eventually met Realtor Stephen Skinner, who connected them to their space. A year later, they took down the paper covering the front of the shop and quietly opened for business.     

Sarah sees The Curd Nerd as a specialty grocery store as much as a cheese shop. You’ll find locally sourced bread, yogurt, honey, salad greens, mushrooms, apples, Clean Slate Farm oils and vinegars, salts from Syracuse Salt Company and everything that partners with cheese: crackers, dried fruits, nuts, olives, cured meats and more.

In a nod to the lactose intolerant, the shop sells packs of lactase, an enzyme that aids in the digestion of lactose. I hope I never become lactose intolerant. I love cheese too much.

I left The Curd Nerd with a fat wedge of Muranda Blue from Muranda Cheese Company, a container of feta (my new favorite cheese to have on hand) from Lively Run and a personal cheese box ($6; shown below) curated by Sarah. It contained slices of Shire (a cow’s milk cheese collaboration between Lively Run and Hopshire Farm and Brewery), a wedge of Nancy’s Camembert from Old Chatham, two kinds of crackers, dried apricots, strawberries, HoBe Honey, marcona almonds and toasted corn nuts. It was the perfect lunch – not too big, not too small, just right.

All cheese/charcuterie boxes, boards and trays are made to order. Visit the website, call 315-299-7006 or email [email protected] for more information.

The Curd Nerd is at 2800 James St. Hours (subject to change) are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Visit their website and social media for more information.

All photos © Margaret McCormick

The new and improved Sauders, Seneca Falls

Many people come to Seneca Falls to visit the National Women's Hall of Fame, the Women's Rights National Historic Park and the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Many more pass through on their way to the wineries that make up the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail and the Seneca Lake Wine Trail -- and to their camps, cottages and homes in the Finger Lakes.

 

Sauders is a destination for food adventurists, "a unique country store'' that has grown from 10,000 square feet to 40,000-plus square feet -- the size of an Aldi or small Tops store. It's not a restaurant, but it ranks No. 1 on a Trip Advisor list of top restaurants in the Seneca Falls area, perhaps for its over-stuffed subs and deli sandwiches.

 

We've been hearing and reading about Sauders' expansion for a year now and stopped to check it out on our way to Seneca Lake. There's more parking, a covered drop-off and entry area and wide spacious aisles. If you're using a shopping cart, you'll no longer clog the aisles and bump into your fellow shoppers.

 

You might find yourself thinking the new Sauders reminds you of Wegmans. The store is big and more glossy, for sure, but still quaint and charming.

 

Sauders, open since 1978, was founded by Mennonites who moved here from Lancaster County, Pa. John Sauder, one of the owners, told the Finger Lakes Times last year the family has been wanting to expand the store for about five years and decided the time was right.

 

Basically, you'll find all the things you loved about the original Sauders -- on a larger scale.

 

You're greeted by a display of seasonal, local produce when you walk in the door. Next stop is a greatly expanded produce department.

  

There's an in-store bakery and an eat-in cafe called the Country Cookin' Cafe. The cafe also offers ice cream.

 

Grandma Sauders Candy Shack department has dozens of choices of bulk and packaged chocolate and candies, including every kind of "gummy" treat imaginable.

 

In the market for grains, pasta, rice, cereals and spices? You've come to the right place.

 

There's an expanded meat/deli department and cheeses galore, including local favorites like Muranda Cheese Co. and Yancey's Fancy cheeses. We spotted cheese curds and yogurts from Stoltzfus Family Farm, in Vernon Center.

 

Like to bake? There's an entire aisle of flour, sugars, sanding sugars, cookie and cake decorations in a kaleidoscope of colors, as well as candy-making supplies.

 

Are you "putting up summer"? There's canning and preserving gear and supplies galore.

 

No Mennonite store would be complete without jams, jellies, pickles, mustards, sauces, condiments and more -- Sauders has them all, including specialty items like pickled eggs.

 

Maple syrup, honey, nuts, dried fruit, trail mixes… the odds are good you'll go home with a thing or two NOT on your shopping list.

 

The "Book Nook" has Mennonite, Amish and community cookbooks.

 

The check-out area runs smoothly and is staffed by friendly young Mennonite women in their traditional white caps and calico print dresses. The store accepts debit and credit cards.

 

If you're in the Seneca Falls area and need some food/grocery items -- or even if you don't -- Sauders is worth a detour.

 

Sauders is at 2146 River Road, Seneca Falls. The store is open Monday to Saturday, beginning at 8 a.m. Information: 315-568-2673

 

Note: East of Syracuse and also worth checking out is the Troyers Country Store, 5518 Nelson Road, Cazenovia. The store offers meats, cheeses, baking supplies, bulk foods, nuts and a popular DIY nut butter grinding machine. The store is open Monday to Saturday. Information: 315-655-0346

 

Buy local in Oswego

Last year’s apple crop was less than abundant, due to widespread hard freezes early in the growing season. But something told me I would find my favorite, Cortlands, at Ontario Orchards in Oswego.

Ontario Orchards was my first food detour on a trip to Oswego on a wintery day a couple weeks back.  The farm store, on Route 104 in Southwest Oswego, is open seven days a week, year-round. In addition to fresh local produce (and imports like romaine and tomatoes from warmer weather states), the store features pies, cookies and other homemade baked goods, nuts, grains and bulk foods, local cheeses, local rubs, seasonings and marinades, and more.

Second stop was Stone’s Homemade Candy, another must-visit for old-fashioned, local flavor.

Third stop was Garafolo’s Importing, a combination butcher shop, sandwich shop and neighborhood grocery on East Bridge Street. If you’ve ever had Garafolo’s Italian sausage, you go out of your way to get to Oswego, on occasion – cooler in hand to carry home a couple pounds of it. If you haven’t tried it, you should – but be forewarned, the XXX hot is flaming!

Last stop was the Canal Commons in downtown Oswego. Craving a caffeine kick before the drive home, I remembered Taste the World, a coffee roaster-food shop we stumbled upon during last year’s Harborfest.

The shop features a nice array of local foods, like Flour City Pasta and Ramona’s dressings and sauces, as well as a fully stocked case of domestic and imported cheeses. The smell of freshly roasted coffee is intoxicating.

A few doors down in the same building is Andrew’s Wine Cellar. I sipped my coffee and browsed the numerous selections from around the wine world before deciding on a bottle from close to home – Billsboro Winery dry Riesling (Seneca Lake). Finger Lakes Riesling goes well with just about everything.

It was too cold and blustery to even contemplate a trip to Rudy’s, a seasonal stand on the Lake Ontario shoreline, already open for the 2013 season. Next time, perhaps.

We’ll also be back to visit Green Planet Grocery (formerly the Mustard Seed),  Port City Cafe and Bakery, The Red Sun Fire Roasting Company, La Parrilla and Man in the Moon Candies.

As the saying goes: "You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy local!''

 

Stone’s Homemade Candy, Oswego

Before there were Gertrude Hawk and Lindt chocolate outlets in what seems like every mall and shopping center, many communities had their own, family-owned candy shops.

Some are still here, fortunately: Places like Speach Family Candy Shoppe on Syracuse’s North Side, Hercules Candy Company in East Syracuse and Stone’s Homemade Candy in Oswego.

I’ve strolled and driven by Stone’s many times while in Oswego. Last week, on a trip to the Port City and on a lark, I stopped in.

At lunchtime on a snowy weekday, the shop was deserted. The display cases offered fudge, chunk chocolate, chocolate barks (milk, dark chocolate, white chocolate with pecans), graham cracker s’mores, Rice Krispie treats, chocolate nut clusters, chocolate-covered potato chips, dark chocolate and white chocolate patties (in peanut, coconut, cashew or raisin, for all of $1.35).

A tray holding sea salt caramels was empty – probably a blessing in disguise.

The cases also held a multitude of hand-made, chocolate Easter eggs with a variety of cream fillings – coconut cream, maple cream, vanilla cream, peanut butter cream. The shop brimmed with Easter baskets wrapped in cellophane and tied with pretty ribbons, filled with molded chocolate bunnies and other treats for those ready to hop to it.

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend an average of $145.13 on Easter candy, clothing and decor. We won’t come close. The last thing our two-person household needs is a surplus of Peeps, malted milk eggs, foil-wrapped chocolate eggs and jelly beans.

I did “splurge’’ on four of Stone’s Easter eggs (two coconut cream and two maple), which cost less than $6 – and would have cost even less if I didn’t opt for the decorated ones. I can’t speak for the coconut cream eggs, but the maple cream eggs didn’t make it to Palm Sunday.

There are fancier chocolate shops than Stone’s in Central New York, like Lune Chocolat in Manlius, Sweet on Chocolate in Syracuse’s Armory Square and Meyer’s Chocolates (Clinton and Camden). Visit them when you’re craving gourmet.

Go to Stone’s when you’re craving something sweet – with a taste of nostalgia, too. Like the French Creams – bite-sized crystallized sugar candies (mint and fruit flavors) with a smooth and creamy center, done up in Easter colors.

“They melt in your mouth,’’ the cashier said.

Stone’s Homemade Candy (and Ice Cream; in season) is at 145 W. Bridge St., Oswego. Info.: 315-343-8401.

Welcome to the First Annual Eat First Central New York Food Holiday Gift Guide

Photo credit: Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters

Salt doesn't have to be from the sea. Seneca Salt Co. Rosemary-Infused Culinary Flake Salt originates deep beneath Seneca Lake.

Not only should the Christmas stockings be hung by the chimney with care. The stockings should be STUFFED with care, packed with treats and surprises – mostly edible and all locally made and sourced -- that make the recipient smile.

There should be a sweet treat or two or three, like artisan cookies and chocolate. Perhaps some spice, like a zippy dipping/pasta sauce or spice rub. You could include a gift card for a local restaurant – or a whole box of dining discount cards for local restaurants. If your Kris or Kristine Kringle likes to cook, a new “toy” for the kitchen is always welcome.

Without further ado, I give you the first annual Eat First Central New York food Holiday Gift Guide. There’s something for every taste. Guaranteed!

SUGAR

Better Brittle

Better Brittle? That’s an understatement. Anyone who has ever tasted Christiana Semabia’s West African-style crunchy, highly addictive brittle, made with evaporated can juice, ground peanuts and sea salt, thinks it’s the best brittle they’ve ever had.

Demand for Syracuse-made Better Brittle got a big boost in January, when Saveur magazine spotlighted it in its annual Saveur 100 list of restaurants, recipes and food products to seek out. See what all the buzz is about. Pick up a pouch of Better Brittle at the CNY Regional Market (Saturdays, year-round) and at local retailers, like Bluetree on Westcott Street, Cafe Kubal and others. A package costs about $5.

Lune Chocolat

Lune Chocolat is the closest thing Central New York has to a Parisian chocolatier.  Owners Mike and Emily Woloszyn love being together and love chocolate. They take fresh, seasonal, local, often organic – and sometimes unusual – filling and ganache ingredients and work their magic with chocolate.

At the recent Buy Local Bash sponsored by Syracuse First, the Woloszyns offered chocolates encasing a bright orange and just as brightly flavored orange filling.  Their Bangkok Square has a filling of lemongrass, ginger and serrano pepper ganache. The fresh mint used in the mint fondant center in their Minty Mints is locally grown. And the pretzel bits on Lune’s Guinness and Pretzels milk chocolate bonbons are from Terrell’s, a hometown brand.

Their confections are a treat for the eyes as well as the taste buds. A five-piece box of chocolates is a gift to savor (and starts at about $10).

Lune Chocolat is at 315 W. Fayette St. (Suite 5) Manlius. The shop is open Tuesday to Saturday.

Fat Friar Cookies

It was love at first bite at the Buy Local Bash: Artisan shortbread cookies filled with lemon curd and jam. Cut-out shortbreads done up to look like miniature friars – robe and all – dipped in dark chocolate. Speculaas – European-style spice cookies – baked in special molds. Italian cookies, and more.

Cookie Monster would have a FEAST at The Franciscan Church of the Assumption, 812 N. Salina St., Syracuse, home to Fat Friar Bakery. Funds raised benefit the Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry at Assumption.

The Fat Friar team, headed by Friar Nicholas, bakes for Christmas, Easter and other holidays, plus weddings, showers, private parties – you name it. Call the cookie hotline at 315-729-6525 to discuss options and prices and place orders.

Lockwood Lavender Farm Fudge Sauce

Lavender is a member of the mint family, and, used with a light hand, has a place in many things culinary – not just soaps and sachets. That includes a rich, thick, dark fudge sauce made by Lockwood Lavender Farm, Skaneateles. Try it, you’ll like it!

Also look for Lockwood’s honey, both fragrant and sweet, produced by “the Lavender Hill mob’’ in the lavender fields on West Lake Road, Skaneateles.

The Lockwood Lavender Market is closed for the season, reopening in spring 2013. Look for Lockwood Lavender products at local businesses, like the Sherwood Inn, Rhubarb Kitchen Shop and Creekside Books and Coffee in Skaneateles.

 SPICE

Pastabilities Daily Spicy Hot Tomato Oil

The packaging looks different, but fear not, the product inside is still the same: San Marzano tomatoes, oil, lots of garlic, a hint of honey. Use it as a dipping oil for bread, a sauce for pasta, a flavor boost for salad dressings and Bloody Marys.

The new packaging gives Pasta’s Daily Spicy Hot Tomato Oil a much longer shelf life – the container in our fridge expires in May 2013 – and allows it to be shipped anywhere. A 15.8 ounce container costs about $7.

Pick up a couple packages of Spicy Hot Tomato Oil – one for the stocking and one for yourself -- at Pasta’s Daily Bread in Armory Square. Or order and ship a bunch at HotTom.com.

Greenview Kitchen Pasta Sauces

In our ideal world, we would have room for a vegetable garden, grow bushels of tomatoes and make and can our own sauce each year. Until then, we’re glad to have several excellent local sauces on our store shelves – including Greenview Kitchen.

Greenview, made in Central New York by Giovanni Food Company, offers four sauces: Marinara, roasted garlic, roasted red pepper and spicy eggplant. At the Buy Local Bash, reps served slabs of thick Italian bread to soak up the sauce – smart! The roasted garlic sauce was rich and full of slow-cooked and garlic flavor.

Pick up a jar or two (about $5 each) for the lover of Italian food on your gift list at Nichols in Liverpool. You can also order online.

Seneca Salt Culinary Flake Salt

Do you love gourmet salt – or are you gift shopping for someone who does? No need for fancy French, Hawaiian and Celtic sea salts. Great salt can be sourced inland – as close as the Finger Lakes.

Seneca Salt Natural Culinary Flake Salt can be used in cooking and baking and as a finishing salt. The salt begins in the salt veins beneath Seneca Lake. The flakes vary in size, shape and structure and adhere well to foods – like the savory Parmesan Sables shown here.

Seneca Salt is a sister product of the Java-Gourmet coffee and spice rubs made by Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters in Penn Yan. Their company store (open Friday-Sunday; plus Mondays in December) is at 2792 State Route 54A, between Penn Yan and Branchport.  

EVERYTHING NICE

Smith Housewares and Restaurant Supply

Smith Housewares is a landmark in downtown Syracuse – and your one-stop shopping destination for the cook and/or baker on your gift list.

Need a couple cookie cutters? There’s a whole wall of them. Interested in cast iron cookware? Check out their selection of Lodge ware. Perhaps your loved one could use a kitchen timer or meat thermometer, an apron or new oven mitts, a select piece of cutlery or a whole set. It’s all there.

Come to think of it, Smith’s has everything but the kitchen sink. Or maybe that’s in there, too, and I just missed it the last time I was there. If in doubt, give a Smith’s gift certificate. You can’t go wrong with that.

Smith Housewares is at 500 Erie Blvd. East, Syracuse, and 170 Court St., Watertown. Visit the website for hours, directions and online shopping.

City Dining Cards

Euchre? Pitch? Crazy Eights? Go Fish? Fuhgeddaboudit.

The only card game we’re interested in is rifling through our deck of City Dining Cards Syracuse – and deciding where and when we’re going to use them.

The sleek, blue and white pack of cards contains 50 $10 discount cards (plus two wildcards offering freebies) to redeem at locally owned restaurants in CNY. All you have to do: Spend $30 or more at a featured restaurant. Redeem your City Dining Card with payment. Receive $10 off the food portion of your bill.

For a complete list of participating restaurants, click here.

For $20, can you say great gift for the foodies and locavores on your gift list?

To locate a retailer in your area, click here.

 

Smith Housewares and Restaurant Supply: Shop Mom and Pop

I’ve had a gift certificate to Smith Housewares and Restaurant Supply since LAST Christmas.

It was tucked away in a drawer for a rainy or snowy day. It doesn’t have an expiration date, but it has been almost a year. That’s as good an excuse as any to take a spin through the store.

For the uninitiated, Smith Housewares is a fifth-generation family business located in an 1840’s Erie Canal-era building in the heart of downtown Syracuse.

It’s not as glossy as the gourmet cookware at the mall, but Smith’s is a magnet for both chefs and home cooks in the market for kitchen essentials and shiny, new culinary toys. The store features a rambling two floors of retail space (and some 18,000 items in the warehouse, according to the website).

You’ll find everything from cookie cutters (a whole wall of them!) to cutlery, cookware, barware, bakeware, small appliances, beer, winemaking and canning supplies, the Hyman Smith Coffee Roastery – and much more.

All your favorite kitchen/cooking brands are there: Le Creuset, KitchenAid, All-Clad, Cuisinart, Wusthof, Lodge Cast Iron.

In the words of one local baking professional: “It’s like a culinary Disneyland.’’

But back to that gift certificate: How to cash it in?

On a mega chafing dish for our next party? Whoa!

Or a Fondue Fun for Two set? Cute. But we don’t do fondue.

Or a ceramic pie plate in a favorite color? Sweet.

On a potato ricer and assorted other gadgets/utensils? No. So many gizmos, such little kitchen space.

On a pair of AireGourmet made in the USA insulated baking sheets?

That’s the ticket! A couple of our baking sheets date to 1980-something. They’ve served us well but are showing their age. These promise to be scratch-resistant, dishwasher safe and “built to last a lifetime.”

A lifetime? I don’t know.  But they’ll get a good workout over the holiday season, that’s for certain. Thank you, Eileen and Dave.

Smith Housewares and Restaurant Supply is at 500 Erie Boulevard East,  Syracuse (and 170 Court St., Watertown). Information: 315-474-8731.

In Aurora, you can bet on Bet the Farm

Nancy Tisch makes her wine at Damiani Wine Cellars on Seneca Lake. But she sells it at Bet the Farm Winery and Gourmet Market, an adorable little storefront on Main Street in the village of Aurora. It’s next door to the post office and a couple doors down from the Aurora Inn.

Bet the Farm is a small winery: Tisch makes about 1,200 cases a year of Pinot Gris, Village White, Cabernet Franc and other varieties, and usually sells out. At her store, she shares shelf space with with Damiani, Shalestone, Sheldrake Point and others, plus neighbor wineries on Cayuga Lake’s East Shore, like Long Point, King Ferry and Heart & Hands.

To go with your wine, the refrigerator case holds a nice selection of artisanal cheeses (Muranda Cheese Company, Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery, Lively Run Goat Dairy, etc.) as well as Croghan bologna from Croghan Meat Market in the North Country village of the same name.

You’ll also find crackers, flatbreads, dips, dressings, sauces, granola, pancake mixes and other products from small-scale food producers in New York State.

I picked up a package of Cayuga Pure Organics polenta (a hostess gift for a friend), a bottle of chocolate-Cabernet Sauvignon wine sauce from Arbor Hill Grapery and Winery (a birthday gift for another friend) and a bottle of Stony Brook squash oil, a local – and very flavorful – alternative to olive oil.

More on the squash oil soon. 

In the meantime, grab your corkscrew, cooler and picnic blanket and take a leisurely drive to Aurora. Pick up a bottle of wine and some nibbles from Bet the Farm and have an al fresco lakeside feast.

Bet the Farm is at 381 Main St., Aurora. Shop hours 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. Information: 315-294-5643.

 

Have a picnic on the patio at Blue Danube Gourmet

The first time I visited Blue Danube Gourmet to Go, in Skaneateles, this was the scene outside.

Now it's summer, and just in time, owners Erica Derrick and Lorand Ernyey have added cafe tables on the front patio, with seating for 10.

That means you can enjoy your biscotti and coffee or premium deli sandwich on a crusty little baguette right on site. No need to carry a couple blocks to a park bench overlooking Skaneateles Lake, though you can do that, too.

What else is new at Blue Danube? Funny you should ask.

In addition to a nice selection of imported and cheeses, the shop now carries bagels from New York City (with a variety of homemade cream cheese spreads, like sun-dried tomato/garlic and cinnamon walnut raisin), 10 varieties of artisan pasta from Flour City Pasta, in Fairport  and a growing selection of salami, prosciutto and other meats for sandwiches or sliced as you wish.

Genoa salami and provolone cheese, on an excellent baguette.

The shop is also featuring healthy specials that change weekly, prepared by natural foods enthusiast Abigail Henson, a jewelry designer and photographer whose works are featured at Skaneateles Artisans.

On the day I visited, "Abigail's Choice'' was Quinoa Corn Soup. I did not try it, but it smelled delicious, and several women who ordered it to go confirmed that it was.

Blue Danube is at 33 Jordan St., in the village. The shop is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Monday (closed Tuesdays).

Kashmir Groceries: An enlightening place to shop

Your travels around Syracuse have no doubt taken you by Kashmir Groceries and Imports many times. It's perched above Erie Boulevard, on Seeley Road, behind the McDonald's that anchors one corner of that busy intersection. But have you ever been in there to have a look around? If you like Indian food -- or even if you don't like Indian food, but make regular use of spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cumin, coriander, chiles and curry in your cooking -- Kashmir is a great place to have on your list of local food shopping destinations.
The store has fresh produce, including such Indian essentials as garlic, ginger and karela, also known as bitter gourd, shown at the top of this post.

There's a vast selection of basmati and other rices, herbs, spices and seeds, flours, lentils, chutneys and other condiments, prepared/convenience foods, yogurts, Halal meats and more.
And the shelves are jam-packed with Bollywood titles, in case you need some entertainment besides cooking.
I went to Kashmir for two necessary ingredients for chai, black loose leaf tea and green cardamom pods, and left an hour later with the tea and cardamom plus a tea strainer, a couple of limes and a big gnarly knot of fresh ginger. The young man behind the cash register was friendly, attentive, informative and a good salesman. Kashmir is at 118 Seeley Road, in Syracuse. It's open 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily. Reach them at 251-2571.