I need a cookbook...and some scales...

...and some measuring spoons...a grater...and a casserole dish...

Realistically what I really need is for our crates to arrive. Most of that stuff I packed in them and it would be silly to go and buy them again. Some of the stuff (like the measuring spoons and grater) I know I didn't pack, so I've been keeping an eye out for them. So far my eye has wandered, but not very successfully...

I've been cooking fairly simple meals since we arrived because:

1. I’m having a hard time remembering what stuff I need to buy for meals when every one of the ingredients isn’t obvious on the supermarket shelves.

2. Meals I do remember often contain ingredients I haven't been able to find yet, or implements I haven't got (like the casserole dish Julie gave me for Christmas that's in the crates)

3. The vegetables in the supermarket aren't exactly inspiring. There's lots of gourd (whatever that is!), but the vegetables I recognise don't look like I'd pay money for them. I know Tesco and the other supermarkets have indoctrinated us into only accepting perfect, round, unblemished fruit and vegetables, and that farmers say slightly odd shaped produce with small imperfections in their skin are just as good for us. Well, maybe so, but the fruit and veg in Spencers look mank! All the apples have bruises. The carrots are floppy, and are starting to go soft and squidgy at the top. I haven’t seen a lettuce, or a round, red or unblemished tomato. To think I actually would like a tomato that conforms to all three. Okay, it wouldn’t have to be round if it was a plum tomato, but I'm not aiming that high, you know…

The cauliflowers are particularly disappointing, especially as it's the family's favourite vegetable. I can serve cauliflower and NO ONE complains (well, only if I stint on the cheese sauce)... If you think of a not particularly good head of broccoli, florets not tightly packed, not the freshest so it's a bit floppy. I'd say that's what the cauliflower looks like except it's white, but it's not really that white either. It's the colour of the last bit of cauliflower you didn't use because the head was so large, and put in the crisper drawer to use later, but forgot, and now it's got this black speckledy thing going on. It looks like that, except it's still in the shop awaiting to be sold. In the beauty contest of life it's not going to win any prizes...

There are also roadside stalls which sell fruit and veg. They charge more than the supermarkets, but the produce is fresher. Raju and I stopped at the one next to Hamilton Court, the swishest housing estate in Gurgaon, working on the theory that the best housing estate would have the best quality vegetables. There's no prices on the veg here, the theory being that the more you look like you can pay, the more they charge. That's where Raju comes in handy. I was given a plastic basket and allowed to browse. The cauliflowers looked better, but still not good enough. I took four carrots, a green pepper, a head of garlic and two handfuls of beans. The whole lot was poured into a plastic bag and weighed. The guy added a few more beans to balance the scales and I was charged 40 rupees. The next stall did fruit, so I put two oranges and three apples in my basket. The fruit guy decided I looked like I needed more fruit (or I was a rich, western sucker!) and suggested some grapes. I'd bought Indian grapes once before at the supermarket and they were sour, not even Keir would eat them. These grapes were imported from the US, and were gobstopper big. I asked if they were seedless, and he offered me one to taste. Now no way was I going to taste the grape straight from a roadside stall. I was going to take all my produce home and soak it in a solution of Reverse Osmosis filtered water and Milton for at least half an hour! Having been imported from the States I knew at least the water the grapes had been cultivated with was clean (something you can't take for granted with local produce), but I still wasn't going to assume he'd kept the dust off them with Reverse Osmosis filtered water. I'd seen the bucket he was using. So I decided to take some anyway (see, he was right, I was a sucker). My bill here was 260 rupees, I wonder what it would have been for just the apples and oranges. At least the grapes (after the soaking) aren't sour at all, but they're not seedless either.