Mark T.
Yelp
The first week of May brought some amazing news for fans of South Indian foods in Denver - namely, the opening of Taaza Mart near Arapahoe Crossings. Let's have a "dekho" and see how many delicious Desi delights we can find in a single space.
One common translation for the Hindi word Taaza is "fresh" - a fitting description indeed for the market's plentiful produce offerings, whether your tastes today lean towards Karela (bitter gourd), Arbi (taro root), or even Sarson ka Saag (mustard greens). The coolers have even more vegetal variety to thrill you, including Ratalu (purple yam), Valor (flat beans), and Parwal (pointed gourd). But of course, we can't forget about the equally enticing meat section can we? As the sign above helpfully indicates, Taaza's Mart's protein choices are Halal and include various cuts of mutton (in this case referring to goat), beef, and lamb in addition to a sizable seafood selection. And since you're right there anyway, why not grab a few freshly-made chapati, bhatura, or other breads from the bakery section to accompany that recipe of yours? But even with all these choices in mind, we've still only just covered a small sliver of the possibilities available here, so let's do a bit more walking and see what else pops out at us.
All this talk of food has suddenly made me ravenous. It's funny how that happens isn't it? Well luckily, very close to the aforementioned areas, I can also avail myself of a little hot food from TM's deli section. Different dishes are available each day, but they have you covered for cravings including Punjabi-style Murgh Makhanwala (butter chicken), Biryani (rice pilaf) representing the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and even Indian-Chinese stirfried noodles. If you so desire, you can even accompany your meal with a rose-scented Lassi drink, or a pastry flavored like the post-dining digestive known as Paan. But to circle back to my mention of cooking above - you can of course find all your actual culinary needs here too, whether you need flours (sorghum, fingermillet, amaranth...) or spices (how about some Pakistani-style kebab mix or even Panch Phoron from Bangladesh?), or... actually, before this review turns into the Mahabharata, I'll let you find out the rest.