Bombay's Vegetable Lane. The Colourful Promenade.

I cook and eat a wide variety of cuisines, but a home cooked meal of dal and rice is the first thing I crave when I am away from home or feeling down. It is also a meal I love to cook for my family, because they never eat as well as when I cook it. Meals in India are defined by a visit to the local market, a “food promenade.” Since I only have access to modern supermarkets near where I live in Mumbai, I often try to shop at the local market near where I grew up.

We have many colourful markets all over Mumbai, and, thanks to the cosmopolitan nature of the city, each of these specialises in ingredients specific to the communities around it. My dadi (paternal grandmother) used to shop at a market within walking distance from our home in a small stretch of lanes perpendicular to Grant Road Station. The two streets across which the market unwinds are actually called Shanker Sheth Lane and Jagannath Lane, named after a “Nana” Jagannath Shankersheth who owned large areas of land in this neighborhood of Grant Road (W) in Mumbai, but I doubt anybody would know it by these names. To us, it is simply “Bhajji Galli” (which, literally translated, means “vegetable lane”). The communities living around this market are predominantly vegetarian, so it is a great source of indigenous vegetables.

The market being near Grant Road Station, which is an important station connecting South Mumbai’s business hub to Mumbai’s suburbs on the local train network, also makes it a popular stop for commuters to pick up vegetables on their way home from work. I was there at a lax time of day, but visit during peak hours and a cacophony of hundreds of voices will greet you, with vendors peddling everything from tomatoes and greens to utensils, spice mixes and dry provisions and  buyers bargaining hard for the best prices. As a little girl, I remember trailing after my grandmother through this market, helping her carry her shopping bags in the hope of a treat (churan, sweet-sour-salty-spicy treats favoured by females of all ages in India, or lemon drop or orange drop, crescent-shaped boiled sweets) when we were done.

Thanks to these memories, I began shopping almost immediately upon entering the market. I remembered that one of my favorite vendors used to sit right at the corner, with a mound of tender green water chestnuts piled before him. Fresh green water chestnuts are really delicious; they’re tender, crunchy, juicy, slightly sweet and faintly herby and come into season at this time of year. I was looking forward to getting some, since I can’t get them where I live. They not only make a great snack but are absolutely fabulous in all sorts of curries, from Indian to Thai to Chinese.

Tucking them into my shopping bag, I moved on past piles of vibrant vegetables: cauliflowers blooming, greens cascading off carts piled with them, bright red chilies sending out their siren calls and staid, sturdy tubers ponderously piled by the wayside. In fact, I was so lost in the colors and temptations coming my way that I almost ran into a pile of pots on display outside the bartanwalla’s (utensil seller’s) shop! Fortunately, it served to remind me that I needed to pick up a masala dani. (A masala dani, also called a masala dabba, is Hindi for “spice box.”) This little utensil is a mainstay in every Indian kitchen; the concept is absolutely ingenious!

In India, spices permeate everything. They are used for pest prevention, valued for their medicinal qualities and, of course, flavor our food in myriad ways. But we don’t toss handfuls of spices into our food arbitrarily; we use them far more judiciously, and they are doled out of these stainless steel boxes in generous pinches. A round stainless steel box with seven round compartments inside and a tiny teaspoon measure that fits neatly into it, a masala dani allows the cook to have the most commonly used spices handy for daily use: chili powder, coriander seed powder, turmeric, salt, whole mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds.  

I was buying a second masala dabba today; I already had the one my mother gave me when I married. I still remember buying it from this very shop and waiting while they engraved my name on it. (Inscribing utensils with names is a rather charming tradition in India, which prevents utensils from getting lost or exchanged.) I wanted a second box to keep smaller quantities of whole spices at hand so that my larger reserves needn’t be exposed to the air every time I needed a few peppercorns or a bay leaf. Quickly dropping my purchases into my basket, I hurried on. I still needed to buy vegetables so that I could decide what to cook!

In India, we follow a system by which staple dry goods, such as flour, rice, grains and pulse spices, are stocked up on periodically. However, the exact menu for dinner can only be decided upon after a visit to the local market because whatever seasonal vegetables are available will determine what dry goods, such as dal and spices, I will use for my meal. For example, after my shopping trip, on my menu was masoor dal, a red lentil soup; pulav, a spiced rice aromatic with whole spices; and a cachumber with onion and tomato that is a cross between a salad and a salsa.

This meal was determined by the spinach I found at the market: beautiful, jewel-bright green leaves that were hard to walk past! Now, spinach is a leafy green vegetable that is high in iron and protein and can be difficult to digest. I won’t serve it with rajma (red kidney beans) beans because they are also very high in protein and that would skew the meal. Split red lentils, on the other hand, are lighter on the system, and their slightly sweet flavor and delicious texture will complement the spinach. The cachumber will offer fiber and crunch to the meal, and the tomatoes will assist in absorbing the iron and protein.

The combination of dishes will also ensure a colourful table to whet the appetite:

Masoor dal Recipe: A thick red lentil soup with cumin and red chilies

Pulav Recipe: A spiced rice aromatic with whole spices

Cachumber Recipe: An onion and tomato salsa-salad with cilantro

Bhajji Galli Market Photography by Theyiesinou Keditsu