From McDonalds to Subway in grocery stores I’ve seen it all until recently on my latest visit to Taj Mahal Imports. Taj Mahal Imports is an Indian super market about ten minutes away from Dallas, Texas that offers a surplus of Indian groceries, shrines, and anything you can think of that has cultural ties to India. When I first walked in, I got chills on the back of my neck, because the smell of the spices was so strong. Walking down the isles of the store I’ve never seen so many unknown labeled spices. It’s very clear why the Roman Empire and other civilizations came to India via the Silk Road because there is so much variety of spices and food.

In the text From Curry Mahals to Chaat Cafés the author talks about the importance of immigrant culture in society. He talks about the different ethnicity grocery stores and restaurants are important for urbanization. “Immigrant stores described in ethnic enterprise literature, serve as sites of social, political, and economic transactions” (Sen 3). I agree with Sen because my experiences with immigrant establishments like at Taj Mahal Importants I can almost visualize my self in India or other countries even it didn’t look like what I expected. Seeing the different products, reading the menu, tasting the food, and hearing the employees talk in their language I can paint a picture in my head as if I’m there.

Overall my experience to the field was fantastic! I tried my first Indian cuisine called the pani puri. It’s hard to describe, but it has a lot of spices and tasted like taco salad. The lady served me like six of them and I devoured them happily. The only part I found weird was that it tasted hot and cold at the same other than that it was a great choice for my first Indian meal. If I ever get severely sick I will definitely return to Taj Mahal Imports because I feel like the spices could help me out on my recovery.