Every few weeks I have a chance to shop in two small groceries a few towns over. One is strictly Indian, while the other shop carries Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. Both always have lots of fresh veggies, my favorite part. Friday and Saturday seem to be delivery days, so I always try to time my visits for the weekend.
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What do I want to make with these?
Vineela’s Eggplant Rice/Vangi Bhath
Aparna’s Healthy Banana Flower
and
BDSN’s Paruppu Usili with Banana Stem Flower
Saffron Hut’s Superlative Ridge Gourd Curry and those cottage cheese-spinach chappatis, too.
I also finally found sabudana papad. I’ve wanted them for months, and was too chicken to ask. For those I want to make some rice and dal. One of the most appetizing pictures I’ve ever seen is of Indira’s Mango Dal and Rice Mudda in Sabudana Papad. I want to try this even if I can’t have green mangoes.
Last but not least, I stocked up on canned and frozen drumsticks. Not the fresh I was hoping to find, but perhaps those will show up one day. Lunch was one whole can of drumsticks, carefully scraped and warmed over hot rice. The canned drumstick does taste very much like well-cooked asparagus. I am anxious to know what the frozen tastes like, without brine.
The fresh lychees are, of course, for dessert!
Out Of The Garden 
aparna said
That Banana flower looks good… little grown up.. remove 3-4 rounds of sepel before working with it… read my comments for banana flower preparation so that you will get an idea what is the exact way.. everybody have contributed for the recipe!!!
And all the best for those recipes from bloggers 🙂
outofthegarden said
Thanks Aparna, I had a whole fresh box of flowers to choose from today and tried to go on instinct since I haven’t bought one before. They were all fresh, will say that. I will check your recipe again indeed for more advice 🙂
vineela said
HI Linda,
Nice to see that you will get plantain flower over there.can you tell me whether you got in indian or chinese store?
See you again for recipes
Vineela
outofthegarden said
Hi Vineela,
Got all the veggies this time in the general Asian store. They have a huge selection ~ something different every time I go. I was excited to find the plantain flower.
Next recipe for me to try is your Vangi Bhath!
Linda