Green evolution: We have a great revolution where this is concerned, when we were young that is during the 60’s and 70’ we had vendors coming with their produce from their farm and directly it was given to us much cheaper than the market rates, as they never had any extra charges for space and other utilities so the people benefited a lot but now the vendors themselves charge you equal to that of the great malls and stores who sell these vegetables. Now looking at the malls and stores I cannot vouch to say that they are giving us the best, I remember I got some fresh spinach from food world in wheeler road, and as they looked so fresh I just tipped the top of the spinach into water and after washing started chopping away only to find a long millipede inside taken my chopping and I had to just throw them away, no doubt the next time I would check, but wondered what if it had been stored into the fridge and it landed in some other food inside and the side effects. The reliance has come a great way for the higher class and the upper middle class. The middle class who are very conscience about the cost part of it still buy from the vendors and sometimes though the cauliflowers look so fresh are infested with worms so much you don’t feel like making anything out of them, brinjals [egg plant] also falls into same they come with many worms and baingan ka bhartha u better be careful.. People who enjoy not the cost but the vegetables are sometime visiting the Namdharis in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1lace>Bangalore</st1lace></st1:City> which is also an outlet for many fresh cabbages from different countries and ready made salads and corn are too good to miss. We may try to ape the west but I wish the malls and the vendors should look into their products with quality in mind, agreed these are perishables and very less shelf life then at least bring down the cost, that way all the vegetables could vanish. In kolkata markets, they also dip the vegetables in green color, ladies finger, beans, and all related to the beans family and it is tough to make out the freshness of the product, now these things could bring about the sales required but one is also carrying a ticket to the hospital later for diseases hard to pin point at. If these new outlets are being condemned in a way then the malls should live up to their name and be careful where quality is concerned and the vendors should think twice before fleecing the customers and stick on to the freshness and maintain a reasonable cost and I don’t think any amount of malls can take over the age old vendor who comes to your door…. regards sunkan..
True Sunkan - the pleasure of visiting markets like the one near Mylapore Tank or Ranganathan street in Chennai or the Raithu Bazaar's in Hyderabad for vege shopping cannot be experienced in a swanky mall or a air conditioned outlet. These new age shops have freezers to preserve the vegeatables. But the traditonal shops have to sell their produce the same day and cannot carry forward their previous day's stock. For instance, if one goes to Mylapore market after 8.00 pm, then the prices begin to fall a bit when compared to the prices in the evening. This is because the hawkers somehow want to sell them off and not carry them over for the next day's sale. I do'nt find the vegetables at places like Food World to be fresh - they look dull and lifeless many a time.
Dear Sun. Unscrupulous fellows will go to any length to make profit. I have seen staff in the Food Bazar in Bangalore Central Mall spraying some solution on fruits and veggies. I did ask him what it was and the boy said just plain water to keep them looking fresh. But when i picked up a cabbage he had just sprayed and smelt it, it definitely had a faint chemical odour like carbolic. God knows what it was. And then, there was this packet of shelled peas i bought in a Hopcoms outlet in mysore city. The peas looked fresh and plump. But when i started cooking, i noticed the green colour bleeding into the water, like a new garment's colour running ! I threw away the whole lot, but for curiosity's sake kept boiling some for 5 minutes and the peas came out looking yellowish and with shrivelling skin ! Later, i learnt from a magazine that dried peas are soaked in coloured water overnight and passed off as fresh. And oh the worms ! I have found them even in the Organic Cauliflowers and Bendis that Spencer's sells. (Yes ! Namdhari's corn ! Wonderful ! ) rgds manjula
dear manju, what u say is true my sis son ajit loves corn pulao atleast once a week and it is very soft to taste. i use them for cutlets base along with vegetables they come out very well binding with bread run in the mixie, no eggs needed to bind them that way, have you tried their [namdhari]salad items, too good to miss, the chinese cabbage which is lengthy is to be taken fresh, cannot be used like the indian ones. the violet lettuce and double shaded ones good but cannot guarantee for taste, i always stock with the fresh frozen peas safal any day, too easy to cook with nothing to worry about color and freshness part of it, even panneer is grt the frozen tit bits kind of amul is easily kept in freezer and much softer than the amul panneer blocks that we get. given a chance i would always prefer fresh peas they may be small in size but damn good in taste with the skin... if you know some friends in metro a big bazaar kind of stuff but u need a sales tax receipt for getting a ticket inside, that is a businessman's paradise, and we shop for once in 3 months it works out damn cheap, you get these eggless mayonaise which is a good binder for coleslaw which the children love once u stuff in subs or chapathis. you also get kodali [green chillies pickles]wonderful with curd rice, but u may have to buy a very big bottle so better to shop together that is ur siblings also....regards sunkan