Beethoven In Trance - Episode 53

Day 6. By the time we got up and got ready, our friend was already up and we were introduced to her family. We met her parents and had a little chit chat. I got the chance to work in the kitchen and I had a good time. I video taped the whole thing of course. My friend made a sandwich with homemade cheese (similar to ricotta), and put it on the flat iron as we do with a pannini. We were stuffed before we could walk out the door. Day 6 agenda is shopping and schedule a tour around the city for the next day. We first went spice shopping. We went to the a local health institute which promotes good health by eating healthy food. First stop is the spice shop. All the spices are handgrounded at the back of the shop, and no photo was allowed. I was asked what to buy, and I basically told my friend I want all of the items on the list. So they gave me a pack of everything (later I found out I don't have enough tumeric and garam masala, but too late). After the spice shop we dropped by a juice mix booth. I asked my friend to told the guy working in the booth not to add any sugar in the juice, and I was told that sugar is not allowed by law in this institution. Wow, that's a first. While we were waiting for the juice to be mixed, we dropped by another store that sells heathly pills and oils. There were almond oil, local honey, etc. We had no luck with either of them because they were out of stock. Well, we went back to the juice stand and finish our juice. The juice was great, and I finished it quickly. I then was dared to try another juice, a cucumber and some other vegetable or fruit juice mix. Not even the locals had tried it. Well, bring it on. The juice came out green, like cucumber, and as a matter of fact, it tastes like cucumber as well. I finished it in no time as well (I did gave my wife a sip to taste). I like the juice, it was little tart, but not too strong, it was refreshing. I would order it again next time.

Next stop is a local market called Delhi Haat, we went to a travel agency (it was a 'government undertaking'), and booked the travel tour for the next day. We then bought the tickets (15 rupee) to go into the Delhi Haat. The place is a gathering of all the local specialty in one place. There are many textile from all over the country. Carpet, clothe, shawl, bags, sofa covers, you name it. The tout inside wasn't too bad. We bought a few shawls there without too much bargining and left the place.

Second stop is an open shopping bazzar. We did our bangels shopping there. This time, we bargained even less. We are pretty sure that we got ripped off badly there. By the time we finished circle around the place, it was lunch hour. We were all hungry, so our friend took us a reputable local restaurant for Southern Indian food. The restaurant was packe, and apperantly popular. There were both local and foreign visitors coming in and out and there was a line outside of restaurant waiting. There were a few seats outside of the restaurant and one seat was opened up and I was just ready to take it, but there was another foreign visitor jumped into it before I did. That old guy even said 'the age beats the bueaty' or something like that. The only time people fighted me for a seat happened in Shanghai when I was a little kid. I've never experienced it in US since I came here and I felt a little 'back home' at that moment. I couldn't say that it was a good experience though. While we were waiting, there were a few kids begging for money and food. I ignored them, but my friend gave him some money, but the kid didn't want it because he wanted food, so my friend bought some snack from a store next door and gave it to him. He then started to fancy my water, and asked my friend for my water. My friend forwarded the message and I replied with a no. I reminded her that my middle name is 'mean'. After about half hour or so waiting, we went into the restaurant, and our friend started to introduced us to the food. We ordered a bunch of them, and most of them are pretty spicy. I finished all of them and I was happy.

Left the restaurant, we went back to shopping. We went to another underground shopping mall (we had one in Shanghai as well). The underground shopping plaza is more stocked towards hippie youngsters, we didn't find much that was attractive. We only bought some shirts that was quoted 650 rupee, but we bargained down to 200 rupee. At that moment we realized how much we could bargain, but that was too late.

Next stop we went to another open bazzar, where I found the best thing of the trip - an Indian wok, we also bought a stainless steel milk jar. We then bought a set of children's clothe for our neighbor's daughter, and few packs of cashew and almonds. By the time we were done, it was dark already, we called it a day and went back home. And I coudn't remember if we had dinner that day or not..... But that was our day 6. We went back, take shower, and had some water, and then met our friend's brother, then go to sleep I guess...