Misc.: food edition

There are so many vegetables here that I don't recognize.  Lots and lots of varieties of "saag" which means, "leafy vegetable" from what I gather.  I would post about them, but like I said, I have no idea what they are called in English so I wouldn't know what to write.

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the side of a package of bread (I don't know about you, but I refuse to eat bread that is anything less than 38% moisture):

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I like it when food is served on a banana leaf and the drinks in those little clay cups. The cups are used in the same way Americans would use paper cups: one use and then chuck it in the rubbish (or, preferrably, smash it against the sidewalk).  I understand that devout Hindus would never dream of sharing a cup or bottle with anyone and on Holi a server showed up at my elbow with a fresh clay cup immediately after I gave a sip to BR from mine.  He poured the drink into the new empty cup and then handed it over to me (as if it was a given and that I would have expected nothing less). 

Street vendors often serve their food on plates or in bowls fashioned from dried banana leaves.  Talk about environmentally-friendly.

We love it when the food is served in clay bowls, on a banana leaf-covered clay plate, and with a drink in a clay cup:

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The kids still miss cheese. We all do. We plan to go cheese crazy while in Germany.  Also, we hear there are more than 1,500 varieties of sausage there.  L. has been dreaming of hot dogs...

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they like to put masala (mixed spices) into everything here. even Pepsi  (yuck).  But it tastes really good in chai.

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We live at the edge of one of Kolkata's Chinatowns.  It is a community of Hakka, nomads from China.  Many have opened restaurants and we can get to that area by bicycle-rickshaw which makes for an extra fun meal.

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Disappointingly (for their parents), the kids' palates have never adapted to Indian cuisine.  They can't wait to get back home so they can get back to eating "regular" food.  They look forward to cucumbers that taste, as they say, "normal."  Apparently the ones here don't live up to their standards (see video from a couple of weeks ago, ahem). 

Speaking of coming home: we have less than a week left in Kolkata.  Hard to believe...