Day 201

Aloo Mutter: Once again, I found myself at Whole Foods on Ponce today in search of some new foods. I had a great run last week with some of their fruits as well as samples from the hot bar, and since I didn't want to invest in a major shopping trip, I decided to swing by there after the gym. Unfortunately, I didn't find much, but I did grab a couple of samples to tide me over until I can search for real. I generally don't like buffets or "hot bars" anywhere (especially at WF with their exorbitant prices), but theirs has actually yielded some good results for my blog.

While browsing today (unfortunately during the lunch rush), I noticed a couple of interesting Indian food items. Since WF apparently caters to a lot of vegetarians, I'm sure the Indian selections are much appreciated. I'm obviously not a vegetarian, but I like Indian food, and WF had two selections that I'd never tried. Since I didn't want to invest in a whole meal, I grabbed a sample cup from the nice people behind the prepared foods counter and dropped a spoonful of Aloo Mutter into it. I had never heard of it, but it looked a lot like the channa masala I've been eating from Trader Joe's.

At first glance, it looked like it was comprised of peas and chunks of potato, mixed with some sort of brown sauce or gravy. If it tasted anything like the vegetable-based Indian food I've tried so far, I knew it would be good. My first bite instantly reminded me of the channa masala dish, especially the sauce. It definitely had a tomato base, but much spicier than anything Indian I've tried in the past. The peas and potato were well cooked, and I devoured the whole sample within seconds. Really tasty. Aloo Mutter would be great as a meal, especially if I had some warm naan bread to go with it.

Ok, so what's in this stuff? According to some simple recipes I looked up, it's a traditional Punjabi dish containing peas (mutter), potato, onion, pureed tomato, and a spice mixture usually including coriander, cumin, garlic, garam masala powder and chili powder. WF's version also claimed to use spices from a company called Kerala Curry (www.keralacurry.com), which specializes in traditional Indian cooking products.

I really need to get myself to an Indian restaurant soon. What am I waiting for?