spaghetti

Last night Adam and his family came over for dinner, and I had the challenge of planning a meal here in this foreign place. It took two trips to the "shopping complex" as it's called, which involved buying groceries from 3-4 different vendors. Elise walked with me the first trip (it is very close, just at the corner), but once there and surrounded by friendly Indians wanting, of course, to approach us and touch her cheeks, Elise insisted on being carried. She's also using her made up word "Bow!" quite a bit. I'm pretty certain the English translation is, "NO! Scram! Don't touch me!" :) Unfortunately for Elise, this doesn't dissuade the Indians around her from cointinuing to touch her and invade the personal space she's been conditioned to enjoy. So, with Elise on one hip and two bags of groceries on my arm, I gave up and decided a second trip was needed. On the second trip I took Elise in the stroller. Claire calls it a push cart. I'm pretty sure it's the only push cart in all of Thane. All little kids that we see are carried by someone. So, we're quite a sight to the locals. Two "whities" and a stroller. I think they must wonder as much as I do how it's possible to manage the stroller when the sidewalks are so rocky. But somehow we do manage.

So, the main course last night was good old spaghetti with homemade sauce. It's funny, most things are pretty cheap here, but not canned spaghetti sauce. So, I tried making my own. It was a pretty good attempt under the circumstances and our guests were gracious and seemed to enjoy it alright. For me, it was a good change from our everyday food here (rice, chipati, and cooked veggies seasoned with coriander, cumin, tumeric, and chili powder).

Along with Adam's family, a social worker from JSK also joined us for dinner. There were only two small problems. 1) Apparently in India when you say dinner will be at 6:30pm, it is common for the guests to arrive at 7:30pm! Oh well, spaghetti is easy to reheat. 2) Our guest had never had pasta before and had no idea how to use a fork! Poor guy. I felt so bad for him. Had I known he was going to join us I would have asked Kashibai to help me with a more traditional Indian meal.

Tonight we have dinner plans with a young couple from the church. We were invited to their place at 8:30pm for dinner (typical dinner time here), but instead we asked if they could come here. By 8:30pm Elise is usually asleep. So with the help of Kashibai this time, we will be eating Indian food again and using our fingers. And Elise and I will take on another trip (or two?) to the shopping complex.

The Alfreds return tomorrow from their vacation. It will be great to have them back and so good to have Claire to shop with!

Missing American grocery stores...
Andrea