Indian supermarket a Wairarapa first

NEW LOOK: Chetna and Raj Patel in their new Indian supermarket. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Wairarapa's first specialist Indian supermarket opens tomorrow in Masterton with a four-day opening sale.

Raj and Chetna Patel have had the supermarket built adjacent to their dairy, having identified a need for it not only among the ethnic Indian population of Wairarapa but also the growing interest in cooking and eating Indian food throughout the entire community.

Mr Patel said he and his wife realised immigrants from India and Fiji who wanted to cook their traditional meals had to travel out of the district, to either Palmerston North or Wellington, to buy many of the ingredients they needed.

"They didn't have the selection to be able to cook everyday meals," he said.

On the shelves of the new Krishna's Food 'N' Spices supermarket are not only an array of ingredients for home cooking but also a wide range of ready meals such as Baingan Bharta, Pau Bhaji, Paneer Tikka Masala and Rajma Masala with easy to follow recipes on the packets.

There are traditional Indian sauces, pickles and condiments, breakfast cereals, spice mixes for dishes like chicken tandoori, butter chicken and fish masala, biscuits and snack food.

Many products are available in bulk with 10kg bags of sona masoori rice, ladu besan, wheat flour, idli rice, biryani and chapatti flour being among them.

Mr Patel said enquiries have started even before the supermarket's opening.

"Just today I had a customer asking if we would be selling chick pea powder and curry leaves," he said.

Mr and Mrs Patel are naturalised New Zealanders having arrived here in 1989 and settled in Wairarapa 11 years ago.

They bought the Westend Superstore in 2010.

The ethnic diversity of Wairarapa has seen the establishment of Indian restaurants in Masterton and Mr Patel said he is friends with the owners and would be supplying foodstuffs to them.