Vegetables

I’m always fascinated to see what’s considered exotic in a market. Bombay markets are rich with choice. There’s a special section of vegetable stalls reserved for things like red cabbage, baby corn, sweet red peppers, asparagus, mushrooms, avocados, basil, and boutique lettuce. When my parents lived in Cochin in the fifties, the local bazaars were crammed with snake gourd, eggplants, long beans, pumpkins, plantains, and a variety of greens, but all the same my aunt in Oota-camund used to send them a weekly basket of what were called “English vegetables”—cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, string beans, and occasionally chayote, known in India as chow chow.