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.



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.



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.