Welcome to Anar

Glenn & Priya

About Us

I co-founded our boutique family-owned business with my husband, Glenn. We are proud member of the Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) based in the North Hills, near Pittsburgh, PA. We met and fell in love while working in medical diagnostic field. Wanting to embark on a dream of mine, we began our journey mixing spices for our favorite dishes. We tested our recipes on each other, our little one, and even our neighbors. After much cooking and fine-tuning, we decided to present our spice-mixes and recipes for your enjoyment!

My sweet mom & dad

Inception of Anar Gourmet Foods

Most of us remember favorite dishes from our childhood. My favorite memories are those of my mom’s cooking when we lived in India. I would wake up in the morning to smell the hearty, comforting aromas of my mom cooking us chickpeas or potato curry with rotis for our lunchboxes. Weekends of special goat curry or tamarind-flavored fish curries still evoke memories of family fun around the table. On special occasions such as birthdays and holidays, we would wait hungrily for that extra delicious chicken curry and coconut rice made lovingly by both mom and dad.

My mom with my grandparents

Anyone who has ever tasted my mom's food raves about it. She has generously given me the secret and not-so secret ingredients and tips for her recipes. In addition, my loving grandma gave me our family recipe for the famed HOT South Indian Curry Powder. Each family has their own secret recipe for curry powders where my grandma comes from. I know ours is extra special as it tastes so good. One taste of a dish from the spice-mix, and I know you’ll agree with me.

Many of my friends say they enjoy Indian food but think it’s too hard to make at home. Anar Gourmet Foods’ spice-mixes does the hard part for you. We blend the spices for you, and then give you step-by-step instructions as to how to make the dish with the spice-mixes. The complexity of Indian food is made easy, and you get to make and eat many of these addictive dishes. Anar Gourmet foods also presents some fusion spice-mixes. Notable is the beef and mushroom spice-mix, a favorite with my husband Glenn, who loves beef.

Anar

The Meaning of Anar

Come, enjoy cooking with our spice-mixes! Come, savor the spicy rich flavors of life itself! I hope you enjoy the fulfilling experience of easily preparing delicious Indian cuisine with Anar Gourmet Foods spice-mixes. Enjoy the wishes of abundance and prosperity associated with the symbol of the anar, the pomegranate.

Anar in Hindi (one of India’s many languages) means Pomegranate. Pomegranates have been symbols of prosperity, abundance, fertility, and even immortality, across centuries in Roman, Greek, Middle-Eastern, Central Asian and South Asian cultures.

Anardana, or the dried seeds of pomegranates, are often used as a tangy and flavorful spice in Iranian cooking, Central Asian and South Asian cooking. 

By making this wonderful fruit the symbol of our spice mixes, we hope to convey our wishes for abundance and prosperity in your lives. Try our delicious gourmet spices-mixes and the easy-to-make recipes that come with them. The 13th century Persian poet Rumi says:

Come to the orchard in Spring.There is light and wine, and sweetheartsin the pomegranate flowers.If you do not come, these do not matter.If you do come, these do not matter.Jalaluddin Rumi

Priya the Co-Founder

♡♡♡♡♡

I hope you enjoy life, love, and delicious gourmet Indian food as much as I do.

- Priya, Co-Founder of Anar Gourmet Foods

Pittsburgh, PA

Intro to Cooking Recipes