Singh Grocery

Let me first say that this place gets the extra star not only for the variety of hard-​to-​find perishable items that they stock on a regular basis, but for the personable way they have of helping you make the most of your purchase.
How do they do that? By being frank about the different products they sell, which ones they prefer and which ones are popular. If you know and appreciate the cuisine, they might share preparation techniques and even the bare bones of recipes, allowing you the freedom to improvise along the theme of the dish (Quote, when discussing kadhai pakora: «after that (the basics) just put anything in that’s spicy and slow cook, slow cook. The more you stir it, the better it is.»
Along with a selection of exotic produce, Singh Grocers stocks special perishables like curry leaves (check in the afternoon on Fridays), and ready-​to-​use dosa batter and idli batter. These are fermented products, so they can be tricky to make from scratch, but at $ 1 a pound, they’re economical enough to please even the toughest ethnic shopping enthusiast.
The place is utterly unpretentious — as most good IndoPak grocers are — and delivers substance over style. Shopping here can be a friendly, accessible peek into another culture, where if you’re earnest in your quest for good food and good spices, you can hardly set a foot wrong.

My partner and I used to hit the Indian buffets at least three times a week. But we noticed a trend – every couple of months the prices creeped up another couple of dollars until it cost us 30 bucks every time we went for lunch. It became an expense we no longer cared to afford so I had to do it… I had to get over the fact that I was raised in a beige Irish household where everything was either A) Boiled or B) boiled and mashed, and venture into this magical world where dark, beautiful women dressed in brightly colored silks and copper colored bangles tossed about a multitude of spices so adeptly it could only mean they ‘d been tutored in the art directly by the kitchen gods themselves.
It took me a year of sifting through bad cookbooks to realize I was never gonna learn by reading about it. So, I stopped looking in cookbooks and started making friends in Indian restaurants and in Indian markets. My skills really took off.
I became determined to understand this exotic cuisine via the marketplace. I found a book indispensable to he or she who is yearning to unravel the mysteries of these modern day merchant stalls: The Indian Grocery Demystified.
I also found one of my unique skills to be an essential asset in convincing Indian women to give up their precious culinary secrets: palmistry! Learn this art well if you wish to learn cooking from Indian women – and don’t for a minute think you can bullshit your way through it –they know the fakes and the phonies!
As I began to understand the combinations of herbs that sent me into culinary ecstasy it became apparent that I needed a relationship with a local merchant. Living up in Lake county I was concerned I’d never be able to find locally all the exotic goodies that are plentiful on Devon avenue. Thankfully the kitchen gods led me to Singh in Grayslake, only a few minutes from where I live.
Singh has everything you need to be a hero of Indian cooking. The folks who run the place are wonderfully helpful. If you need curry leaves, dosa batter, Indian tea, paneer, samosa or one of the thousands of Indian spices that make the cuisine so delightful this is the place to go.
Please support them – lest my favorite local merchant disappear…