“Am not looking my best, but you will relish me, I promise.” My mind never stops talking when I am in the market and laying hands on the green vegetal. Often, it is the feel of it that, leads to visualisation of the dinner menu on the table.
The cabbages, carrots, bell peppers are always easy-to-pick. The green peas frozen and fresh pods are more of a decision because they differ in flavours when cooked. Deciding between celery and coriander is yet another task for most of my Indian cooking, especially the north Indian dishes, taste wonderful to a hint of coriander.
The spinach washed clean, green, tender, are always welcome. Yet, I have to replay the vegetal aroma to match the dishes. Without doubt, a dish of spinach that retains its original flavour is the most preferred these days.
That reminds, the selection I had to make from the assorted sprouts in packets. A week into vacation, left me with little choice but to buy the ‘usual’ home germinated beans and pulses, and home-made yogurt.
However, in a local market the vendors do not place the name plates for the veges . With the global touch, the vegetable markets have an array of lettuce, broccoli, zucchini and such other foreign guests laid alongside the popular and the desi (local) collections. Guess, that is the first reason, why I had visited the net to learn about the vegetal.
Interestingly, the dictionary meaning turned into another search from vegetables, to vegetal characteristics of unripe grapes in wine, to vegetal cells in embryology.
Let time decide. My concern for the day is, dinner for two.
Daily Prompt – Vegetal
Copyright © 2016, Deeya Nayar-Nambiar
Variety is the Spice of Life 