Look what I found!

India has a rich vegetable heritage and we should be proud of it. Even with most of the vegetables available throughout the year, there are still so many things I'd like to see in Bombay. For instance in winter, the north gets to make kanji- a fermented drink with black carrots and the south of india sees some beautiful varieties of spinach which we don't get here. But since we're in a sort of cosmopolitan-urban setting, we get some vegetables that you probably wouldn't see anywhere else in India. Most of it is thanks to Trikaya, a company that grows some funky vegetables not very far from Bombay. The rest, like the invasion of the huge tomatoes and ice berg lettuce, I would attribute to McDonald's, Subway and KFC. (If you haven't read Fast Food Nation you must).

I buy most of the non-Indian vegetables from Crawford Market. Every time you go they have something new and you probably will not find the same thing twice. The staples there are green and yellow zucchini, red and yellow bell peppers, celery, leeks, fennel, thai brinjals, birds eye chilies, avocados (when they are in season), artichokes, rainbow chard, chinese kale, lettuce varieties, cherry tomatoes, arugula and herbs like basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, tarragon, chives, mint varieties. If you are lucky you will get arugula, endives, edamame, tree tomatoes and a few things I have in pictures below...

Cherry Tomatoes I found in the Ghatkopar East Market

Here are a few things I found...

Romanesco Broccoli/ Cauliflower

I had no idea this even existed till I saw it sitting on the counter. It's so beautiful it almost hypnotizes you. I couldn't stop looking at it all the way home. Apparently "the meristems of this cauliflower/broccoli form a logarithmic spiral". If you want to see symmetry in nature (without the use of hallucinogens) then go find one of these.

It tastes a lot like a broccoli but is not as strong in flavour. I'm sure kids who don't like broccoli will like this better. It cooks much like a broccoli so you can steam it, or eat it raw even.

Purple Cauliflower

I love purple, it is my favourite colour. So this is something I couldn't not buy. There's so much to do with cauliflower and I was so confused what to do with it. I finally ended up putting it in a quiche. I have even found Orange Cauliflower on one occasion.

Baby Carrots

When you watch too much of Masterchef Australia or TLC, you will want to go and find those vegetables they use and make their dishes look so pretty. These again were at Crawford Market a few weeks ago. I roasted them with other root vegetables and a dressing of EVOO and balsamic vinegar...divine! The leaves were garnishes on many salads over the week.

Dragon Fruit

Took me back to Malaysia. It is so delicious when it is cold.

A few notes on where to buy:

These days every vegetable guy has broccoli, avocados, celery and the red and yellow Bell Peppers. But they do sell it at double the price. If you have the time and energy to go all the way to Crawford Market, then you absolutely must because the produce is at its freshest there. And always be prepared with some extra bags to bring back all the thing that you didn't plan to buy but bought anyway.

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Travelling Vegan- Malaysia

I spent this last week in Malaysia on vacation and thought to dedicate a note about food in Malaysia. The Malays love their sea food and it's a bit disturbing (and smelly) for a family for four vegetarians and one vegan.

En route it's almost impossible to get any vegan food. Most international airlines offer vegan food as an option while booking tickets. I was so excited last year when I got to tick that 'vegan' option. It only resulted in me staying practically hungry on a 16 hour flight with the air hostess telling me "...get your own food next time". They didn't even know what 'vegan' meant, confusing it with Jain food. The low cost airlines don't allow you to eat any other food except the ones they sell you on their flights. But who's going to stop you from eating on a flight if they don't have anything to offer you.

In Malaysia the vegetarian movement is alive and kicking thanks to the Indians and the Chinese Buddhists. If you're Indian and don't really want to go to another country and eat Indian food all over again, then the Chinese vegetarian restaurants can be a breather. They serve u some nice soups, salads, noodles, rice varieties and also lots of mock meat. But if you've been vegetarian and do not fancy the idea of eating even a 'fake chicken' then they are almost always happy to omit what you do not want. One good decision was that we took along some theplas. There are a whole lot of places to get good south Indian food with the huge south indian population there. We tried Annalakshmi which is run by the Temple of Fine Arts and they offer a vegetarian buffet. All the proceeds of this restaurant help them in running their organisation, you eat and pay as you wish and all the food is prepared and served by volunteers. We also sampled some Malay/ Chinese street food and they were nice enough to avoid the MSG, meat and eggs. There are many north Indian restaurants also one of which we tried along the Cenang Beach route. We ended up eating only oil i think at that meal.

It was easier to find food in supermarkets and alter menus in Kuala Lumpur. All the food in the super markets contain MSG (a.k.a Ajinomoto) and Aspartame. You really have to look at the

ingredients and buy. Thankfully in Malaysia I found the food labeling laws have forced the companies to list everything in their products, unlike in India where Lays gets away with 'No added MSG'. It helps that the people are friendly and accommodative to your needs. In Langkawi things got a little more difficult. It's difficult to find food to snack on specially for a vegan. It's best to snack on the awesome range of tropical fruit they offer like the Dragon Fruit (pictured on the right), Durians, Mangosteens, Rambutans (on the left), Papayas, Pineapples, Mangoes. I even found Jicama, a crispy sweet

root that is widely used in the South Americas. They also have lots of dried and preserved fruits and vegetables and also potato and yam chips. Malaysians also use many types of mushrooms, celery, broccolli, corn and many vegetables common to Indian cuisine.

It also helps to do a little bit of research and learn a few key words if you're going to a country that speaks another language and also many foods list their ingredients in Malay in English script. So you can read it but you need to know what it means. For instance Milk is Susu (Really! It was amusing at first to see the different flavours of susu available at the supermarkets) and Egg is Telur. Soy milk is easily available for those who need it, though not in as many flavours. Tofu, also called bean curd is also available though some varieties are called 'egg tofu' and contain eggs.

It's not hard to travel with diet restrictions and it's always nice to try new foods. Most people are rigid and only stick to eating what they know and recognize. I think it's time to change, in so many ways!

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