Mayank, thank you for this. I would be very pleased to read more such recipes -- please continue to share!

Mayan. Such a lovely plot and what sounds (smells?) like a great ending. Like Lisa, please do continue.

Your description is not of the American supermarket. That is one of the sadnesses back home. The supermarket has so much but lost contact with people and food color, smell and quality.

Mexico is still marketplaces and food from the back of trucks or local farmers in town for the morning with their product.

I prepare a dish (Mexican/Chinese/American?) that works for my heart and my wife's digestive problems.

The result is similar: garlic, onions, potatoes, ginger (when possible), tomatoes and whatever else happens by in the market that blends in -- corn, celery and, of course, some dried chile de arbol -- a cayenne. And tortillas.

Your article is so charming I can only salivate at the thought of your dish.

Lisa and Howard: Thanks for encouraging me. I will try to do more recipes.

like every thing else, mr. Austen has been success ful in trying his hand at recipee writing too. never thought reading a recipee could be so amazingly appetizing.

Mayank, one hint for your American readers -- here coriander by that name is typically sold as a dried, powdered herb. The green plant is more commonly called cilantro in our markets, and is commonly used in Mexican cooking.

And it looks just like flat-leaf parsley, which is NOT a substitute, so be careful. I am enamored of Baighan Bharta & the northern Indian biryanis, myself.

Nancy, that's so true -- I grabbed a bunch of cilantro in a hurry at the supermarket one day when what I needed was a bunch of parsley. Needless to say, I sniffed the difference immediately when I began chopping, and I always remember to sniff before I buy now, depending on which one I want!

we need to ban curried food. I need a clothespin when "curry-eating individuals" come into my store! Either that or get hosed down first.

Nancy. I'll actually wish to write a receipe for baingan bharta one of these days....

I love the flavors of Indian cooking, but I had to teach myself to cook at home, because all the Indian restaurants make the food far too spicy for my wussy Western palate. I must have 5 or 6 Indian cookbooks, including Charmaine Solomon's massive "Asian Cooking" & the old Time-Life series "The Cooking of India", both of them visually stunning & full of fascinating anecdotes of life there, not just the food. I regularly make lamb biryani, baighan bharta, dos piaza, and various lentil & chickpea curries, as well as dosas. I even learned to make my own panir (it's super easy).

I found the long lists of ingredients are easier than they appear, since most of them are spices that all get fried up together at once. Indian cooking requires lots of prep (assemblywise), but actual cooking is pretty straightforward & quick, the 'heat' can be adjusted to your own personal levels, the results are delicious, and if you make extra, the leftovers just get better.

Nancy, I must tell you this. I'm a proud owner of all the 27 volumes that were published in the TIme-Life Food of the World series; including the small receipe booklets that accompanied the volumes. I'm very possessive about my collection.

Besides, do not you have Madhur Jaffrey's books on Indian cooking? You must. And please do have Camellia Punjabi's book '50 Great Curries of India'. That is if you like curries.....And yes, you have just given me an idea. But I will make a post out of it. Thanks.

ALL of them - ?! I envy you! I've been collecting them for years, but only have 11 or 12 of them. They're almost impossible to find, and most do NOT have the little recipe booklets, either. But they have such lovely photos & such interesting information, they're almost as good as travel books. No, I don't have Jaffrey's books; IMO there are better recipes for the same things elsewhere, and I just don't care for the way they look. I do look forward to your next recipe/article.