Not that diary

In the early days, just like the fruits, the vegetable section of supermarkets continued to fill me with more questions than answers. The translation software on my phone was of little use, as many of these were labelled 'native vegetable'.  Eventually, I decided to chuck a new veggie in my basket each week and work out later what it was, and how best to cook it. Here is a small selection of the more unusual and the interesting ones. There are several I had seen before but never tried. Others, as I discovered in my online searches, were well-known in parts of India. I just hadn't come across them while growing up in Delhi, or my family had not experimented enough - an oversight they are now addressing as they regularly share their own funky recipes. Winged beans This is undoubtedly one of my favourite finds. I first tasted these in a delectable salad at an upmarket hotel in Bangkok. It was absolutely scrumptious and I confess, I have never been able to replicate that exact ...

One of the unmeasurable joys of being in a tropical country is the variety of fruits and vegetables on offer. Long before national governments began to persuade us to have our ' 5 A Day ', both my grandmothers, several aunties, and of course my parents were already on the case. Thailand is indeed a delight for fruit-lovers. As a vegetarian I live by one simple mantra: to try each and every type of fruit, vegetable and edible plant that is available in my geography. Having spent a significant part of my life in India, I reckoned there would be little to surprise me in Southeast Asia. How mistaken I was! Perhaps it was a consequence of growing up in north India. It is entirely possible that the fruit and veg (F&V) that I consider exotic in Thailand has long existed in some parts of the Indian sub-continent.   During my first few months in Bangkok, each visit to the F&V section of a supermarket revealed at least one new thing I had never set my eyes upon before. After exci...

It is a strange feeling indeed to be an Indian (of sorts) in Southeast Asia. Years ago, in smoke-filled pubs of London, it felt perfectly logical to have the Goodness Gracious Me -inspired argument that only one outcome was acceptable: ‘We did it first in India’. Fortunately, the pubs became smoke-free, and I could spend an evening without needing an instant dry-clean for my coat or a deep-cleansing hair wash after each visit. I digress, as usual. This time, as I traverse around Bangkok, I have been filled a growing realisation that indeed, many ideas, beliefs and practices did emerge first in India. Equal is the wonder at how delicately they got assimilated in the local culture and acquired a uniqueness that can only be described in this trite but useful phrase- same same but different . Lest you await the hackneyed confession ‘I truly found myself’ (and there are many ways of finding oneself in Bangkok!), let me assure you there has been no such miraculous moment of discovery for me....