Tribal People Try Vegetables

Vegetables the village has never seen: avocado, asparagus, artichokes, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, beetroot, and western ways of cooking familiar ones — raw, steamed or roasted rather than cooked down in a bhujia.

Raw or steamed vegetables taste unfinished to people who cook every sabzi with onion, tomato and spices until soft. Avocado is the recurring mystery: not sweet, not sharp, buttery. Brussels sprouts are declared to be small cabbages, correctly.

Aloo gobi, bhindi, karela, saag — vegetables are half of village eating, but always spiced and cooked through. The western habit of leaving a vegetable to taste of itself is the difference.