I am in Bangalore over the weekend, and in addition to work I am doing some exploring. As usual when I am traveling, a lot of my exploring relates to local food and markets. I started yesterday with a return visit to Gandhi Bazaar. (Any of the photos below can be clicked to view them full size.)

Gandhi Bazaar is in a very old part of Bangalore, near the Bull Temple in the Basavanagudi area (this is actually redundant since Basavanagudi refers to the temple). This is a residential area with wonderful tree cover that makes the main street almost a tunnel. I am told all of Bangalore used to look like this.

Gandhi Bazaar has vendors selling a variety of fruits, vegetables and of course many other things on side roads. It is distinguished though for selling various items used in Hindu religious rituals including temple offerings and personal ceremonies, or pujas. As I learned last night from my friend Neeraja, pujas are a daily occurrence in most Hindu homes.

“Puja (worship) of the gods consists of a range of ritual offerings and prayers typically performed either daily or on special days before an image of the deity, which may be in the form of a person or a symbol of the sacred presence. In its more developed forms, puja consists of a series of ritual stages beginning with personal purification and invocation of the god, followed by offerings of flowers, food, or other objects such as clothing, accompanied by fervent prayers.”

— http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/a/rites_rituals_2.htm

Many offerings are made enclosed in the betel leaf, which is also historically chewed along with the areca nut as a stimulant. These are offered at the end of meals, when guests leave your home, and apparently on many other occasions. I will say they must be offered a lot because there were numerous betel leaf vendors selling what must have been tens of thousands of betel leaves.

I had a wonderful dinner last night with Neeraja at the restaurant Karavalli at the Taj Gateway on Residency Road and tried the betel leaf at the end of the meal (shown below wrapped and unwrapped). It tasted mildly of menthol, and the package included fennel seed and clove. It cleared my breath, and according to Neeraja aids digestion.

This photos below show a wrapped betel leave, or paan, and the same leaves opened to show sugar coated fennel seeds and other enclosed goodies.

I love going to farm markets in other countries and regions to see the fruits and vegetables that are part of the local cuisine. You can learn so much about a culture and how it evolved from its food. While South Indian food is clearly distinctive, it has also assimilated plenty of European ingredients.

The photos below is one of my favorites from the day. It shows a vendor selling jack fruit, both the very large and distinctive whole fruit, and cut up fruit in the glass case (hard to see in the photo). I understand these fruit to be extremely aromatic, and very sweet. I am also told they are extremely difficult to cut up. I am hoping to try the fruit today. Jack fruit are the largest tree bourn fruit.

A common part of many offerings and pujas are flowers. There were many vendors in Gandhi Bazaar selling individual flowers cut from their stalks, and also flower woven into long garlands that I understand are a traditional offering between the bride and groom in Hindu wedding ceremonies.

I have come to love South Indian food, and am trying to learn to prepare some of the dishes at home (with somewhat limited success). The food is largely vegetarian, very richly flavored, and generally healthy. (I don't think I could be a vegetarian, but if I was I would eat South Indian food every day.) I am continuing to learn the ingredients, most of which are available at South Asian markets in the US. The photos below show (on the left) a variety of vegetables mostly familiar to me. There is kohlrabi, cauliflower, small eggplant, beans and others. The photo on the right is bitter gourd. It is stewed or fried, and apparently needs to be soaked in buttermilk first to moderate the intense bitter flavor. It also looked very cool. Above the bitter gourd there is a yellow cucumber, which I would have pegged as a squash. I understand that the color yellow, and yellow food in general, is very auspicious.

I found lots of other interesting things yesterday beyond fruit and vegetables. There is an enormous amount of construction in Bangalore. The larger construction projects use metal scaffolding that would probably pass inspection in the US. Smaller projects use poles lashed together with twine, like the example below. This scaffolding was three stories high, and actually looked very sturdy. I would just not be keen climbing something made out of old poles tied together with string.

The Royal Enfield was originally a British designed motorcycle, now manufactured in India. Much like a modern Triumph it is a retro looking bike (that probably shares some DNA with the Triumph). I love the look, and think it has been more optimized for low cost production than most bikes sold in the US. I am pretty sure this is a Bullet Electra Twinspark model. That would mean 346cc, 19.8hp and a kickstarter. Those would have been competitive specs for a commuter motorcycle in the US in 1967. I would love one of these for around town use in Alexandria. (According to WikiPedia, the Royal Enfield is produced in Chennai, and it the oldest continuously produced model of motorcycle in the world.)

The guy beside the bike did not seem keen on my picture taking. He had been glaring at me, and in this photo is starting to turn to look more closely at what I was doing. He has the look of a small town cop, complete with pot belly straining against an oversized belt buckle. I wandered off and he lost interest.

On the side streets near the main market there were many of the other typical shops. I noticed several shops where it appeared the mannequins were old, and maybe not originally intended for the type of clothing they are now being used to showcase. In the example below, I found the mannequins downright spooky. The saris are colorful, but nothing special. The mannequins are chipped, faded and look like they could come to life as zombies.

This is the only street shot not taken in Gandhi Bazaar. This is in an area near city market, and the rock wall is actually the outer wall of Bangalore Fort which General Cornwallis captured from Tipu sultan, trying to reclaim his pride after suffering defeat in America.

The lighting in the photo is terrible, but the dark items arrayed on the blue tarp are locks of human hair. Long, beautiful locks from what I could see, I assume it is worn woven under a shorter hairstyle. I thought it was an interesting item see being sold in the market.

Wandering in Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore

My Old Shoebox