Thursday Fieldtrip!!

I had a culinary adventure today with a sweet friend from work!! Some historical info to this story includes a fantastic evening for a "HOW-TO" Indian cooking class and yummy dinner with her family early in the spring! She is always giving me tastes of her delicious lunches at work and even sends snacks home for my man! We miraculously finished work about the same time today and had both skipped lunch---> so she decided we should go to a little place she knew for a snack and then go to the Indian store for the remaining goodies I need to make an authentic meal from India!

I let her order for me since I have NO idea what I'm looking at! We had aloo tikki (a spiced potato pastry), kachori chaat (sort of a tiny pie with spicy lentil filling), mint chutney and mango lassi (a drink with mango and buttermilk)! OH MY IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!

THEN--> we went to the store where I found the items I needed for my recipes as well as some fresh veggies I have never seen before! It was so much fun! The store owner let me taste an orange hard candy with a syrupy filling (I thought it was a piece of orange bell pepper from the distance) that was SOOOO sweet but good. She was giggling at me the whole time because I couldn't get over the look of the bitter gourd! I took a pic of my purchases (so you and Dad could see the veggies, Mom):
The knobby ones are the bitter gourds which M says she doesn't think I will like. It is apparantly an 'acquired' taste and very true to its name-->BITTER. But we'll see, I'm up for the challenge! The little ones are called Tindora. I have a recipe for Tindora rice that uses the "special" spice M's family made while she was home in India this summer. I can't WAIT to try it this weekend! Wish me luck and good cooking karma!