2 downs, 1 up, one middling

It's all about food, of course.

The downs are as follows: 1. matta rice flakes are not a cold breakfast cereal, despite being listed in the cold breakfast cereal section at Big Basket. Furthermore, they do not taste good, even when you mix them with sweet things. 2. The coconut oil I bought tastes like ass. Smokey ass. Not rancid, just totally, utterly disgusting. It made the matta rice flakes look like yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Not that I make short work of a yellow cake with chocolate frosting or anything. Nope.

Anyway, the matta rice flakes are only a mild disappointment, but I'm bummed about the coconut oil. I use coconut oil as a moisturizer for my face and body, and was hoping I could keep doing so here, but unless I can find a much better coconut oil that's not happening. And honestly, the moisturizer choices, while abundant, leave something to be desired, because so many of the offerings are skin whiteners. I knew before coming here that skin whiteners were popular, but I still wasn't prepared for how popular. Kwality Big Bazaar, though quite small in size, stocks a wide selection of them. Big Basket lists approximately 150 lotions and moisturizers on their site, and 75 of those are whitening products. I know that still leaves me 75 to choose from, but most (all?) of them have ingredients I choose to avoid. So compromise it will be! But no lightening lotions. I'd scare people.

The middling (because I'm going from bad to good here, despite the order in the title) was the pre-made paneer butter masala I bought the other day. I decided the kids and I would try it out for lunch today, because it was marked as "mild", and therefore, I hoped, suitable for Liel.

Well, sort of.

First of all, it was not mild in the way Americans would define that word. But I'm in India, so of course that makes sense! But I've bought "hot" salsas at home that couldn't even come close to this stuff in terms of spice. Just sayin'.

So I put some rice in a bowl for the girl, and added a little bit of sauce. I'd say it was about a 4:1 rice: sauce ratio. Too spicy. So I brought her some plain yogurt to cool it off, and she put in about twice as much yogurt as there was masala sauce. But then she could eat it, at least! I think the channa masala I bought, and which is labeled as being "medium" spicy, will have to be eaten on a day when I have something else cooked for Liel, cause there's no way that's happening.

And the good? Well, I'm making ropa vieja! In my rice cooker! With water buffalo!

OK that last one might not really call for an exclamation mark. But it smells super yummy, so keep your fingers crossed that it will be, because not good water buffalo ropa vieja would make me a sad panda indeed.

Golden

Sort of a mixed day so far today. My third Big Basket order was delivered, which was mostly good. Having ordered from them a few times I am still a big fan, but I've noticed that they list things as "in stock" that are not. There are items I've tried to buy 3 weeks in a row that are consistently listed as in stock, but which are not in stock. It's not a big deal-- certainly not enough to deter me from ordering-- but I'm thinking maybe there are a few items on their site that need to have their status changed. Their customer service is lovely however. When my zucchinis arrived too bruised and battered to use they immediately gave me a credit for my next order. Anyway I got nearly all of my order today, including a HUGE bunch of organic basil, so I'm content. I think I'll use the basil to make basil chicken! And then, if it's any good, I'll post a recipe.

I also cast on a new cardigan today, out of a pretty, brassy colored yarn. I'm still trying to dream up a way to make it exciting, but maybe a few plain sweaters are what I need. I'm not sure the color will look anything but awful on me, but since I sell or trade most of my knitting anyway I'm not too worried about that.

The down side of the day is that shortly before lunch Zion started complaining about how hungry he was. I basically ignored this (just said placating things like, "OK honey. I'm cooking lunch, it'll be ready soon".) because, hey, he's an 8 1/2 year old kid. Of course he's hungry!

As I was putting rice and lentils into bowls he started saying that his throat hurt. So I gave him some water and told him to eat up. About halfway through his lunch he threw up. Luckily I had a bowl handy, so clean up, at least, was a breeze (ha- I sound like a commercial for some cleaning product! A gross commercial, involving vomit). After that I felt vaguely guilty that I hadn't taken his complaints more seriously, and he went and lay down on my bed and played a game of Archon.

He seems to be feeling much better at this point, so I'm feeding him slowly and giving both kids some schoolwork. Apparently puking only gets you a day off if you don't feel better afterwards!

On buying groceries in Bangalore

Considering the fact that we haven't been here very long I feel like I've written a lot about groceries. In New York I do a big shopping trip at Trader Joe's every two weeks, and supplement from local sources as needed, and sometimes that still feels like I'm always going to the store! Here, with the local markets so small and crowded, grocery shopping has actually started consuming even more of my time and thoughts!

Before I even arrived in India I knew that there were several grocery delivery services in Bangalore, so once we had our internet up and running I started looking for one that delivered to our neighborhood (a challenge in itself, since I'm still not sure which neighborhood we live in. Google maps says Mathikere, but if that's correct we're on the very edge of it. In fact, we appear to be on the edge of 3-4 different neighborhoods). It turned out I actually had choices! But it also turned out that I couldn't order until we had working cell phones, since a cell phone number was one of the required fields for ordering.

So I spent a week filling a shopping cart and looking for reviews of the companies I was considering using. Aside from the glowing testimonials on their own websites reviews were pretty thin on the ground-- perhaps because these services are new or not commonly used yet. And when my cell phone turned on yesterday I promptly placed an order with Big Basket. Why Big Basket? Well, they had a fairly large selection (including some organics!), come out to my corner of the city, and I read someplace that it was started by some former tech guys looking to go into business for themselves, which reminded me of my brother. So there you go: practicality and emotion, blended together, the basis of all good decisions! I requested delivery today between 10am and 1230, did my best to fill in my address, chose cash on delivery (LOVE this option!) and hit send.

Within 2 minutes I had a phone call (with a woman who spoke excellent English) confirming my address and landmark (Bangalore addresses are sufficiently confusing that giving a nearby landmark is standard practice. Actually I think this is standard in most of India, but I've only seen it in action here so far). Later I got text messages confirming my order, and telling me that it was packed, ready, and out for delivery.

This morning at 930am there was a knock on the door, and my groceries had arrived! The delivery guy was very polite, and also spoke good English. Here's a picture of most of  my order.

I got:

-2 kg spinach
-1 kg organic tomatoes
-1 kg organic carrots
-organic cauliflower
-cantaloupe
-avocado
-4 zucchini
-250g cilantro
-3 chermoya
-1 kg baby bananas
-2 kg sweet potatoes
-2 HUGE bags of garlic (I thought I was buying heads of garlic, not bags.  I think I have at least 30 heads of garlic now!)
-peanut butter
-nutella
-milk
-a can of gulab jamun, as an experiment
-yogurt (not pictured)
-1 kg boneless chicken (not pictured)
-1 kg cubed buffalo (also not pictured- and will clearly require a report of its own!)
-1 kg oatmeal
-toilet paper

Not a bad haul, right?? I don't have a clear sense of how Big Basket's prices compare to the local stores, but they seem reasonable to me based on what I have seen-- the whole lot I just bought cost about $39. Expensive stuff was the meat (buffalo was $3.25, chicken was $5), the peanut butter ($5!! and not a big jar), and the toilet paper ($4.75). I tried to get PB without hydrogenated oils, and I may have succeeded...hydrogenated oils aren't listed in the ingredients, and this PB cost more than the ones that did list it. So...maybe? We don't buy peanut butter at home since Liel is allergic, but we can't get alternate nut butters here, and so we're now leaving the remaining almond butter and sunflower seed butter that we brought for her and the rest of us are eating peanut butter. Anyway,  I now officially have a crush on Big Basket, and absolutely plan to keep ordering from them! Oh and it's probably obvious, but I'm not being paid to endorse them, or to write this review. Just posting to help out anyone else in Bangalore who is wondering which grocery delivery service to use. I can't speak to the others, but so far I love these guys!