21 January 2012

Lie in and lazy start after the excitement of yesterday. I managed to find the Pizza place that I had been to and liked . I thought we needed "bland" to recover from yesterday's rich wedding feast, and it turned out to be good choice, with a Pizza Hut style unlimited salad bar, pizza and garlic bread and a rich chocolate brownie with ice cream thrown in. All for just over £2 each. The pizza and the garlic bread were baked to perfection and the salad bar had some lovely tasty Indian twists such as sprouted mung beans with fresh shredded cabbage with tangy green mango pieces. We then braved the "Mota" (Big) Bazaar which has shops and stalls crammed into every nook and cranny selling everything you could possibly need in this life, and even the afterlife at the mandir, and next to it, at the mosque. Lovely little steel plates (Thalia) were adorned with the Om sign with fruit, nuts and little pewter statues of your favourite god or goddess which were offered to the deities with Agni (eternal flame) in clay pots. The murmured prayers of the devotees were drowned by the cacophony of sounds from the incessant blaring of vehicle horns, the extolling, wheedling voices of the vendors and the shouting of customers above all this, haggling for the best prices. It feels overwhelming loud and unbearable if you are not used to this, or tired and just want to get a bottle of vim and get home to scrub your marble floor. We didn't need to do this, and on the whole it was exhilarating walking along, tasting the bits of jack fruit, pineapple and any number things. to "taste then buy". I bought some jackfruit, which is so pungent that the aroma pervades everywhere, and "ponk" which is green, very young Juvar, a type of barley which tastes divine hulled and warmed through, eaten with savoury "sev", which is like a fried vermicelli, and a coriander chutney. I love all the tropical fruit here, as the pineapple, melons and papaya are just so juicy and tasty. I also had my absolute must, which is the water and young creamy flesh of a green coconut I only have it at every opportunity because it's good for clearing out my kidneys - honest! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Navsari