Down Town

Today while walking back I took some photos of the roadside stalls. There are shops all down one side of the road while the other is given over to larger institutions and a recreation ground.
Those pictured, for example are outside the LIC Insurance company. There are also tea stands, sweet stands and all sorts of other businesses that don't have a building to use. Just because a business is on a stall not a building doesn't mean it is any less good. Many of the local shops are tiny too, maybe 2-3 metres square, they usually have a counter at the front and all the wares behind.... on shelves, on walls, hanging from the ceiling, piled on the counter, no space is wasted and they know where everything is. You stand on the street to buy from them. The stationery shop I was in today was one of those. It had a huge range of Parker Pens!
As you can see the men running the stalls were very happy to have their pictures taken, I had to have mine taken by them too!
One stall contents is fairly obvious, the other is Jack fruit. Jack fruit, if you have never seen them, come in enormous spiky skins they can be over 2 feet long and a foot in diameter. They are usually sold in portions like this. The fruit has been opened and the segments separated, then they are sold by weight. They have a highly perfumed flavour and are quite soft and juicy. They have a hard to describe texture. You shouldn't eat too many pieces though. Local people quite often have them dusted with red chilli powder. I prefer them au natural. I usually rinse them in mineral water before eating them. On top of the case of segments are the emptied peels. Apparently the inner pithy parts are cut into chips and fried. Waste not want not.
The coiled flowers are Jasmine flowers. It is a tradition, especially in Tamil Nadu for women to wear Jasmine flowers in their hair. There is a whole industry around growing the flowers, picking them then threading them into strings. You buy lengths by the foot then pin them so they hang down the back of your head. They look stunning against the black hair and smell delicious. They need to be renewed daily as they only last one day.
The final picture is the Aaryas bakery. I often stop here for a cup of tea on my way home. As you can see there are some fairly exotic cakes on offer. They tend to be rather sweet for me, but they sell plainer versions by the slice too.
The extra collage is of Ida in her kitchen making Poori - the ones I have for breakfast are a much larger version. As she pointed out though you need much less oil to fry them in if you make them smaller. She uses Gingili (sesame) oil as it is best apparently. There is such a range of different oils, rices, flours and other grains here all with their own uses.
It's interesting to see just how much food is fried in either shallow or deep oil here. I don't know when I last deep fried anything at home.