kalustyans.

So I’ve heard from numerous sources that Foods of India next door is the better place to go for fresh spices and the like, but my goodness, a trip to Kalustyans brings out the food experimenter in me.  So many unknown bags of spices!  Random rice mixes!  Lentils galore!  I think it’s the checkered linoleum and tiny, narrow aisles that make me feel like I’m a serious food shopper, wedging myself between the hot sauces and the random food browser, amongst the crazy melange of powdery spice dust and confined-space New York City grocery-ness.  My photo lab is only about three or four blocks from here, but I willfully forget this fact whenever I drop off a roll of slide film, for fear that I’ll just wander into the shop, and somehow, inevitably, justify a 5-lb red lentil or Pakistani basmati rice purchase.  Sometimes I look longingly at the 10-lb tubs of ghee and sigh, dismaying that my shopping companions aren’t more willing to indulge in (read: carry) my own culinary indulgences.

Update: A few more pics below, on the Nikon and with expired Ektachrome 64.