Today is a Jewish religious holiday so I am off from school.  I used the day to visit Little India, an area where most Indians live and market.  The market has mostly fresh fruits and vegetables along the street and in a section of the covered market.  There were two other sections of the covered market.  On the upper floor are many Indian clothing sellers.  The largest group was women’s clothing vendors.  The dresses are rich in color with a lot of embroidery.  Indian woman are generally small so I am not able to find clothing for myself.  I enjoy looking.  I chose to take pictures of some of the most elaborate clothing.

Wedding Clothing

On the lower floor of the main building is what is called the wet market.  It is called this because the whole area is hosed down every day.  The largest section is the seafood and meat section.  I made the choice to take a picture of that section from the upper floor because I have trouble with the smells.  

The vegetable sections is connected and along the streets.  Many of the vegetables were unknown to me.  I thought you might like to see pictures of some of them.

Sugar cane

Buying flower garlands

 I stopped for lunch at a traditional Indian restaurant.  I got the vegetarian combination from the Southern Indian menu.  My tray came with three tomato based curry type dishes.  There were two vegetables, a squash and a yogurt-cucumber dish.  Tofu and a type of cheese made up the protein.  The tray is lined with a banana leaf that doubles as the plate.  The man came by with a bowl of rice and dumped some rice in the middle of the banana leaf.  There was no silverware.  The food is eaten with the fingers.  Until I specifically requested it, no napkin was given to me.  I watched with great interest as others ate with their fingers without making a mess.  I was not as good with it.

I have decided that I want to learn how to cook Indian food especially vegetarian dishes.  I got a couple of cookbooks and went to the main Indian grocery store last weekend.  The herb section was the largest section in the store.  It is huge.  I bought cardamom (green and black), cinnamon sticks, curry leaves, coriander seeds, cloves, cumin seeds and a few others.   I went home and began making a few of the recipes from the book.   The combining and cooking of the vegetables and beans are typical and easy.  Preparing the herbs is what is different.  The herbs are used whole, sautéed until they are fragrant, and then ground.   The directions ask me to sauté herbs until it is fragrant.  You should have seen me standing over the pan sniffing and sniffing to decide when the herbs were ready.   The dishes  were okay, but I still have a lot to learn.  I didn't grind the herbs enough so I spent a lot of time picking the herb pieces out of my mouth after each mouth full.  I found that the dishes tasted better the second day. 

All the best of all of you.   I am very good and enjoying my time here.  Sara