Ivy Gourd

The only time my mother ever came to the Alemany farmers’ market with us, in 1986, she went into shock when she found out what we were prepared to pay for what in Bombay is regarded as the lowliest green vegetable, the tindola (accent on the first syllable). It’s true, the price was very high—four dollars a pound, versus twenty cents in India—and it changed hands like some rare or illegal substance, hidden from general view in the back of the stall, sometimes requiring just eye contact to a