Indian food stores

[offdalip]

Don't forget,

even if you have a few years of food stashed away and more is finding a hard place to find storage room in your house;
you can always hit the Indian, Chinese and Mexican foodstores in your area just before the rest of the people realize
at the last minute what is going on and stock up on 20# bags of rice , wheat and beans. they always carry huge stockpiles especially
the Indian stores

[Atash Hagmahani]

Funny you should mention "a few years" worth of food storage.

I used to think in terms of surviving relatively short-term crises. Now as I watch large systems start avalanching into chaos, I'm thinking longer term.

For one thing, who still has food is doing well, when food is precisely what is running out first, along with fuel. Hard to store fuel. :(

Indians eat a lot of highly storeable foods out of habit. But there are historical reasons they got into those habits. 

[Ozark Lady]

This may sound naive, but how does one recognize those kinds of stores?

I have seen one local supermarket become a Mexican supermarket, never been in there, neither before nor since the transition.

But, what would identify a store as Chinese or Indian?  The Mexican signs, and foreign language is our clues on the one supermercado here.

[offdalip]

There are allotta Indians where I work, hence allotta Indian food stores.

After walking into some of those places, I can't really get myself to buy any more
storage food especially if you get bugged about all the space it takes up.

A better option is to go in with CC or cash just before the shummer hits and buy the
bejusus outta their rice wheat etc.

I did that some years ago on a small scale and now it's time to rotate that food into
our diets as well as our dogs diets.

Just be watchful for that "tipping Point" and act fast. Worst thing, you'll gave food for a few extra years.
Make sure you like rice and beans for a consistent diet first

[offdalip]

This may sound naive, but how does one recognize those kinds of stores?

They are really only around LARGE metropolitan centers.

Usually large Hospital or medical research centers have ethnic minority food stores catering to these people

[Atash Hagmahani]

How do you recognize an Indian market:

The picture of Ganesha (Elephant-headed boy) is a dead giveaway.  God of auspicious beginnings/prosperity...popular with Indian merchants...
Smell of incense.
Bags of long-grain rice.
Bags of more kinds of Lentils and Pulses than you probably realized existed.
Generally a whole aisle of spices.

American-born Indians often seem to switch diets but foreign-born usually eat a diet that is rich in rice (the south) and/or wheat (the north), lentils and pulses, and milk products (the north; southern Indians often have a genetic predisposition to stop producing lactase as adults, and therefor can not digest lactose). Usually on a local basis they eat other grains in smaller amounts, including grains not usually consumed by humans elsewhere, for example millet, sorghum, and barley (humans mostly drink barley more that eat it...), probably depending on climate and soil. The Pakistani diet is similar.

They eat a variety of hot-season and cool season vegetables (grown in winter in the north), as well as some local peculiarities such as some exotic types of bean pods, and Moringa pods.

They tend not to eat beef (Hindu taboo) or pork (Muslim taboo). Lamb is not uncommon. Fish surprisingly rare, especially inland (too hot and not enough refrigeration to get it to market). I dunno if it is still true, but the traditional Indian diet only included meat about 1 day in 3. Jains are traditionally vegetarian, Buddhists often so, it's fairly common among some devout Hindus, it's not required of Sikhs but something like 1/3 of them are, and some members of other religions often practice just because it's fairly common there.

[Ozark Lady]

Interesting.
Although, I have driven through Minneapolis, Chicago, Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Little Rock, Des Moines, Bismarck, Sioux Falls etc.
I do not make stops in cities.  I fill my gastank before I hit the city limits, plan my route and just get it over with.
I used to shop in Springfield, Mo.  But, I planned my destination, and never varied.

Cities are scary places for me, I think nothing about walking through the woods at night, barefooted, and no light with me... and yes there are rattlesnakes and copperheads here.  But, they just don't worry me.  You can smell or hear a snake.

I guess you would say, that I am comfortable in the wilderness, and alert and onguard in cities, therefore they are not enjoyable places for me.

And I went to school in Detroit as a child, and lived in Kansas City for a few months, it is not like I haven't been in cities, just not my "cup of tea".

Okay, not worth going to a city, I will scope out the local super mercado!

[Ryder]

wal-mart, sams club, costco, discount grocery stores, all sell bags of beans and rice and vitamins. People wonder why I have so many plastic garbage cans around. They store a lot of food don't ya know. It might happen that you will know there is a food shortage when the food runs out at thestores.....then it will be too late to buy any. I just don't buy into the fact that some filling food will not be eaten just because it isn't what you really like or are used to. Survival food means you eat it to survive dying.

[darwinslair]

If you dont have it yet, buy i tnow.

I am thinking i need to get a few 25# propane tanks.  I have a stove I can hook up to a tank, and a heater head.  I should have more than just the few small bottles I have on hand.

<smile> I dont think they spoil.

Tom

[hancocs]

They have alot of survival food samples you can buy out there. Order a few and try them. Then order what you liked. It may come down to a survival situation where your going to be happy that you have some food let a lone if it taste good or not, if it is going to keep you alive, you will eat it.

[opsec]

Propane has a near eternal shelf life. I have heard people in that industry say that the tank will go bad before the propane inside does.

[silverseeds]

  Im with ryder. I wouldnt wait to get bulk foods until that pint. for many reasons.

  Will we know something shifted right away? we know its coming but as it comes how will things shape up? what if there is food rationing before actualy shortages? Like you can only buy a weeks worth at a time or whatever...

   Or the owners of the stores realize they cannot restock so take half of it home.... or things go over the edge at night, and you being a honest law abiding fellow dont kick down the door and rob the food off of the shelves, but perhaps someone else does. OR.... someone follows you home. Or sees you there with your multiple carts of rice next to empty shelves and knifes you right there. Ever see those wal mart black friday videos? those folks are trying to save a few bucks generally on some fun but worthless item. what will those folks do if theres no food? would they follow you home knowing your trunks is full of rice?

    But as ryder said, we may not know until the shelves are just empty. opps.. weve been outbid on the global market....Also how many others have the same plans? you cannot know. perhaps  you get lucky people are mostly calm, the shelves are stacked when you get there, and some wealthier guy goes and offers triple price in gold for the entire store..... getting out of the parking lot will take time, as will getting to another store and getting inside... will the second stores shelves be bare????

   or what if it is our dollar that falters... of course then if you have metals which fewer folks do, they may still seel the food to you, or not.. they may load a truck and bugout themselves.

     I do actually plan on driving through our shopping districts if I believe TSHTF, just to gauge how people are reacting.

[offdalip]

  Will we know something shifted right away?

I think that was what I was alluding to.

when the samclubs, wallymarts, costco's etc., ,, start to look like they are getting a run on for wheat and rice,
and beans , it will not take but a day or less to clean them since they carry such a low stock of just in time food.

These are the large club superbrands people will think of to clean out first.

two days later they will think , "oh Yeah, That Indian Grocer has a thousand pounds more rice than wallyworld ever stocked".

Which is Basmati...............prolly 

Anyways, just a way to get there ahead of the hordes at the last minute if you are already overflowing AND WELL stocked up and
want to stock up EVEN MORE when you see the actual tipping point of mass run on food . Otherwise , gee, just get an extra barn now
and just keep putting it away......2-3 years survival is a minimal food storage quantity .... more is better

[Ozark Lady]

I love beans, and I like rice.
We stored alot for y2k.
And before we got those beans all used, some of them turned to a powder in the canning jars.  They were not sealed really, just in a canning jar to protect them from mice etc.
Some of the others, got so dry? anyhow, you could soak them a week, and boil them for days, and they stayed hard.
I am not sure this issue has been addressed.
Now, I was an idiot and stored them in the cabinet over the cookstove, hot storage.

But, do consider adding diatomaceous earth to your jars, to kill bugs (the dust) and store in cool place, rotate, and use them up within a couple years!

[Dame]

Store our beans on the floor in an outbuilding without windows.  It is cold for much of the year and dark.  We pour them between containers to kill off the bugs a couple times per year if we think of it.  The winter cold does in most of them I think.  The building is also mouse free, we keep nothing in there for them to eat.

And I am still using sprouting beens that were forgotten/misplaced for 10 years as well as a few navy beans that are close to the same age.  Tripped over a Kali Dal recipe today and tried it on the very old navey's which DH had soaked and cooked up today.  Really good.  We could eat that maybe 3 times a week with variations.  Note to self "start cumin and fennel for seed."   The books say we can grow it here.