Building a Taste of Home

Circle Indian Supermarket and the neighboring Circle Asian shop are both run by Akash Singh, who moved to Leuven around four years ago. After buying the shop from a Nepalese owner, he decided to focus specifically on Indian products and ingredients that customers struggled to find elsewhere.

Newro Market shares a similar story. Owner Paudyal Bodhraj bought the shop from a Kurdish man and kept its original name, while he built his own business. Starting with very limited resources, the shop gradually expanded its range of products as demand grew, focusing increasingly on Nepalese food.

Lovedeep Singh, the owner of Ashoka Asian Supermarket, came to Belgium from New Delhi about fifteen years ago, and moved to Leuven four years ago after noticing the city’s growing Indian community. Singh saw an opportunity to bring familiar products and flavors to Leuven’s international population, and the shop today offers products from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, helping recreate the tastes many customers grew up with.

Authentic Flavors and Ingredients

Each of these shops has developed its own specialties. At Circle Indian Supermarket, customers especially love the fresh-made samosas and Indian sweets, alongside products from the popular Indian brands such as Annam and Swagat, and ingredients that are essential to everyday Indian cooking such as hot madras curry powder, chili powder, and Indian curry mixes.

Lovedeep, who also highlights Ashoka Asian Supermarkets’s madras curry powder, assures customers can find almost everything they are used to having in India: “I’d say at least 90% of the products are available here.” He explains that many customers visit specifically because they cannot easily find these flavors in mainstream supermarkets. Meanwhile, Newro Market has become especially popular for the Nepalese sweet and sour candies, including mango and lapsi dallo candies, which remind many customers of home.

Sharing Culture Through Food

Beyond groceries, these shops also act as cultural meeting points within Leuven’s international community. Akash especially appreciates Leuven’s calm atmosphere and large student population, describing it as “the best city in Belgium.”

For the Nepalese community connected to Newro Market, cultural celebrations remain deeply important. Festivals such as Dashain, Tihar, Teej, and Lhosar are celebrated together with Leuven’s Nepalese diaspora community, helping maintain traditions far away from home. Paudyal also highlights how Nepal is home to more than one hundred languages and an incredibly rich cultural diversity that many people in Belgium may not know about.

At Ashoka and Circle Indian Supermarket, cultural traditions are also closely tied to food and celebration. Akash highlights Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu celebration where sisters tie a rakhi around their brothers’ wrists as a symbol of protection, as well as Diwali, the Festival of Lights celebrated each autumn, while Lovedeep talks about introducing customers to the huge variety of Indian sauces, spices, and cooking traditions that shape South Asian cuisine.

Whether you are searching for ingredients from home, discovering South Asian cuisine for the first time, or simply looking for a welcoming atmosphere, Ashoka Asian Supermarket, Circle Indian Supermarket, and Newro Market each offer their own small taste of South Asia in the heart of Leuven.