MARSHALL - In the mood for ethnic food but you think you are stuck in the middle of the prairie? Your wish is now fulfilled.
Ahmed Omar, the owner of the Hindi Store in downtown Marshall, has had his ethnic grocery store open for a couple years and last week started a restaurant.
His store customers would often say that Marshall needs a small ethnic restaurant.
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Photo by Karin Elton
Ahmed Omar samples the food that is now offered at his Hindi Store, which can be found in the back parking lot of Main Street near East College Drive. The restaurant offers a variety of ethnic foods and is open seven days a week.
"A lot of people would ask me to open a small restaurant," Omar said. "Most cities have restaurants where you can eat Somali, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern food - not just one thing, but a lot of different cultural food."
The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. seven days a week ready to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Bright orange booths take up about half the space of the store and he has installed a "whole new kitchen" in the back, he said.
Customers can eat in or take out. He'll do free deliveries also, for a minimum order of five meals.
Meals include rice, salad, vegetables and a choice of meat - beef, chicken, goat and lamb. Tilipia fish is available also. A rotisserie is always in use to carve off meat to fill pitas for gyros.
The restaurant also offers samosas which are triangular-shaped appetizers filled with spiced meat and vegetables or just vegetables if desired. They are popular in India and Africa, Omar said.
"People can call and make an order of vegetable or beef," Omar said.
In addition, a type of pineapple upside down cake is offered for dessert.
The meals are flavored in the Somali culture way, Omar said. His mother, Fadumo Hindi, is the cook.
"She is the best cook," said Omar, a 2001 Marshall High School graduate. "She came from Fargo, N.D., to help me."
Omar's wife, Sadia Salah, also works at the store and restaurant.
"Lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. until 2 or 3 p.m.," Salah said.
The restaurant serves tea in the Somali style - with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.
"It's really good," Omar said. "It smells really good."