Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Back, and yet not back

Yawning at 10am

4pm stomach growls

Need to take a nap at 6pm

Up at 2am

Sleepless at 5am

All the signs of jet lag, after the long and tiring flights from India, that play havoc with me each time I return. Each time I hope it will be better this time, mind over body, and all that, but no. I succumb. Over the last few days this has slowly diminished, but I am not yet back to cooking anything exciting or new.

So I forced myself out on the weekend to the farmers market, to load up on fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement all the rice and dal eating, and it was raining persimmons! Perfectly sweet for eating out of hand, and a good antidote to that dwindling bag of baakarwadis.

Persimmons in India

Amarphal, aka persimmons in India

In the meanwhile, I am happy to report that persimmons are available in India too. Not necessarily in speciality stores, but even at the regular corner fruitwallah. He called it 'Amarphal', and carried both the Hachiya and Fuyu varieties, though he didn't call them as such. He even knew about that paper-y feeling of Hachiyas. That was a pleasant surprise for me, because growing up I don't recall eating them. He said it came from Kashmir, but look, the sticker on it says 'Kinnaur', which is in Himachal Pradesh.

Fruitwallah

The corner fruit stand where I often stopped by had a great selection of seasonal fruits, including persimmons and fresh figs. My favorite things there were sitaphal and chickoos, both of which I cannot get here.

20 comments:

FH said...

Amarphal, never heard of that either, enjoy!:))
I love Sitapala as well, been long time since I have eaten that!
Love the photos. Happy Thanksgiving!:)

Anonymous said...

He! He! That woman is giving you quite the beady eye! And there are hardly *any* people in that picture! Wow!

You get canned chickoos here. They are called sapota. I've never had them but I've seen the cans at a friend's so I can't vouch for the taste.

I can't wait to see what you're going to regale us with in your forthcoming posts!

Ashwini said...

Thats an adorable name! Immortal fruit, when actually it comes and goes in a blink :-)
I cant wait to tell my dad becoz I made persimmon salad last year and raved about it over the phone.
Get over your jet lag already and tell us about the trip (baakarwadis sigh)...

Richa said...

hey, nice to see ya back, waiting for ya to be totally back ;)
i get frozen chikoo here, they make very good shakes, do chk it out :)
to calm my sitaphal cravings i get a bottled mix, works well

musical said...

Good to see you back, dear :). I'm kinda' excited to know that we get persimmons in India too! Is it recent? because never saw them when i was there!

They are a prefect, delicious snack :).

Looking forward to more stories and food from you :).

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

TheCooker said...

Welcome back!

bee said...

i am so jealous - fresh figs, sitaphal and chikoos - my three fav fruits in that order. welcome back. are you serious? they put stickers on individual fruits in india now?

Padmaja said...

persimmons in india, i bet they have everyfruit we get here but so sad that we can't import those amazing fruits from there to here like sapota, custard apples!!!

sunita said...

Welcome back...love the pics... drooling over that stall.

Tee said...

Great to see you back! Hope you had a great time with your family... Its been ages since i had sitaphal!

ServesYouRight said...

"dwindling bag of bhakarwadis" i'm on my way!!

smita

Green Mirchi said...

Hi... interesting about amarphal.
btw if you like chikoos like I do.. you get them in the frozen veggies section in the indian store (swad brand).not quite like fresh but good for milk shakes or icecream.. you may even try the chinese grocers..apparently they are a popular fruit in singapore etc. and as for sitaphal.. my friend told me she spotted it in an italian market called nino salvaggio in the suburbs of detroit, michigan.. you never know when u may get lucky in your local farmers market...welcome back!

evolvingtastes said...

Thank you all for the grand welcome!

Asha, it was an interesting discovery that I just had to share. Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

Manisha, I hardly composed the picture. I took it on one of my errands, and thanks to so many curious eyes around that made me very conscious, I quickly clicked. I have tried the canned chickoos and they were good for shakes, but too syrupy to eat on their own, and didn't have the same aroma as fresh ones. I hope to live up to your expectations, but my trips are usually quick and revolve around family.

Ashwini, right on. I too thought the name was rather cute. I hope your dad can try them out. Ask him to get both types so that he can decide which ones he like. I prefer the Fuyu, for sure.

Richa, will do! I have already tried canned chickoo for shakes, will try out frozen ones too. Yeh bottled sitaphal mix kya hain? Anyway, part of the fun is spooning out the flesh and spitting out the seeds, no?

musical, I think it would have to be recent, because people at home too were asking what it was.

thanks theCooker, glad to be back.

evolvingtastes said...

bee, not all fruits and vegetables have stickers, but some of them do, yes, and for a while now, I think.

Padmaja, probably. I am happy though that we get an abundance of some beautiful fruits and vegetables that I haven't seen there.

Sunita, thanks so much, and welcome to my blog as well! You have a gorgeous blog and I will be hopping there soon to check it out.

Thanks Tee. It seemed like it was quite the sitaphal season with cartloads of them everywhere.

Smita, you are welcome anytime. I am tempted to sing 'come phaast, come phaast, don't be sloooo', a la SPB, but I will spare you the misery. :-)

Hi Pacchai Milagai, that is great info. You are so right, one never knows when you can find something interesting somewhere.

Cynthia said...

I love corner stands, they always provide such enjoyment by their offerings.

Glad to have you back, jet-lagged and all.

Rachna said...

Hey welcome back dear!

evolvingtastes said...

Cynthia, Rachna, thanks for your welcome.

Anonymous said...

Know precisely how you feel! I have been exploring your blog and love it.

I discovered chikoos on my trip, in Cambodia. They are delicious.

evolvingtastes said...

Thanks vegeyum! It means much. It has been a while since my trip now of course. Hope to hear some of your stories soon.

Anonymous said...

Dear,Friend
Kinnaur is a breath takingly scenic and sparsely populated region. Spiti and Satluj rivers flow through Kinnaur to

meet at Khab and become one the Satluj. Scores of flowing streams feed these rivers and all their valleys are

strikingly beautiful the slopes are covered with thick woods, orchards, fields and picturesque hamlets.Here are two

of the world's great mountain ranges the Zanskar and the Great Himalaya.Sumdo is the last Kinner village on this

road i.e.NH-22 whereafter the SH-30 starts leading into Spiti Valley. The total length of road from Shimla is 355

Kms whereas Shimla is another 385 Kms from Delhi.
Please Visit For More Detail
http://desidirectory.com/india-travel-guide/Default.asp?OrdDate=0&txtKeyword=&page=2

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...