Gulab Jamun, Dosa or Naan – you name it, they’ve got it. Two Indian grocery stores bring Indian flavor to town.

Mirsung Ethnic Indian Groceries, 49 E. Green Street, and Annapoorna Stores, 505 S. Neil Street, offer a wide array of products ranging from spices to frozen food and basic ingredients such as lentils and rice.

Despite the current economic crisis, business is well, said Mirsung co-owner Manoj Shenoy.

“Recession hasn’t affected us because we are a niche business. In fact, our business has continued to grow,” he said.

In the last four months, four new people have been hired.

“Our customer base has definitely grown. Initially it was only Indians but with the passage of time I have seen the Indian food being liked by all the societies here, whether it’s American, South African, Chinese,” said Rakesh Handa, owner of Annapoorna Stores. “The variety and exposure to food, that’s why they’re fascinated.”

Nevertheless, the majority of their customers have an Indian background.

“About 90 percent of the students (coming) are Indians who feel homesick, and then they want to cook,” Handa said.

Since undergraduates often do not have the time and facilities to cook, frozen food is most popular among students, both shop owners have observed.

“The undergrads like to pick up frozen food, warm it up and eat it with the bread we have here,” Handa said.

Indian graduate students tend to cook more of their own food.

“I try to cook Indian food on the weekends,” said Debasish Das, graduate student.

He stops by one of the Indian grocery stores about once a month, buying mostly Indian flatbread (Naan) and frozen vegetables.

“We eat a lot of spicy food, so everything else tastes a bit blank,” Das said. “We don’t like to go without Indian food for a long time.”

Both store owners emphasize that Indian cooking is not hard. Cooking Indian cuisine from scratch traditionally takes a lot of time, but with ready-to-go spice mixes it has become a lot easier.

“If you want to cook a particular dish you pick up a pack of spices, the protein or vegetables, water and you are done,” Handa said.

The stores obtain most of their products from retailers based in Chicago. Frozen food is delivered by refrigerator trucks once a month, Shenoy said. Once a week, Handa drives up to Chicago to buy fresh vegetables from large retail markets.

Mirsung tries to focus on its student customer base. The store offers a 10 percent student discount when spending more than $10 and delivery for products worth $30 and more. The store also maintains a restaurant section selling Indian fast-food.

“I would love to also reach out more to American students and students in general,” said Renita Pinto, co-owner of Mirsung, “because I still have people coming in saying ‘How long have you been open? I never knew you were here.’”