Shopping for food in Delhi is quite an exercise. In Shanghai, foreign food was easily obtained and local goods could be bought at the same stores or other, equally accessible places. Shops were open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day - well , perhaps not but more or less.
In Delhi, you go to the market. In fact, you go to several markets and these are not markets in the nice, laid out, air conditioned or heated sense that the Americans use the term 'market'.
Khan Market is allegedly the 'posh' market for rich Delhiwallahs and foreigners. It is some of the most expensive real estate not just in India but in the world and looks to me like a ramshackle collection of shanty shops with dust covered store fronts and dark interiors. It has a toy shop, some book shops, a few extremely expensive imported food shops (£4 for Philadelphia Cheese!), some quaint home furnishing stores, electrical suppliers, a number of supposedly good cafes which I can't find the front doors to and a few rather oddly placed brand stores like Tag Heuer sitting in among the dust.
INA market is a full blown, medieval, blood running in the gutters market. This is where you go to buy spices, household items, fruit and veg, meat, fish (in the winter months) and yes, as you wander past the Samosa stall, you find a couple of shops piled high with imported goods. The shops sell a remarkable variety of food but it takes a while to realise it. Instead of three shelves of different brands of olive oil, you can choose from three bottles of different brands of olive oil. You can buy French butter, English cheddar, sour cream, ricotta and mascarpone. They are contained in one very small fridge which holds no more than two or three of each item.
Imported goods safely obtained, next stop is the spice stall followed by the nut stall, the veg stall and, if you are feeling really brave, the butcher. Here men sit cross legged on wooden platforms, peering over their blood stained blocks and weilding an alarming assortment of weaponry. Obviously, you can't buy beef nor, it turns out, can you buy lamb but you can buy mutton. In order to ensure (as far as possible) freshness, you are supposed to buy a whole leg or two of mutton and get the butcher to mince it in front of you. You are then presented with one bag of minced meat and one of chopped bone and fat. In the cold weather, the smell is mildly unpleasant. I do not intend to go there once it gets hot.
As you go about your shopping, you are accosted by boys shouting 'coolie' at you. They will load your wares into their baskets and follow you around the market as you shop and then take the purchases to the waiting car for you in return for a small fee. My mother who has done much of the market exploration and is determined not to be taken for a ride, refuses to use the coolies and instead, gets each shop owner to carry her shopping to the car, thereby necessitating several trips back.
Finally, you have done the rounds and emerge blinking into the sunlight and then you realise you still have to buy fruit. The fruit stalls are in the car park. I have no idea why.
The last place we shop is Jorbagh Market, our local around the corner market. This is an altogether more tranquil market intended mainly for the small amount of people living in Jorbagh. It is, however, a boon as it has an imported food shop (I know I have now described three places with such shops but there are only five in the whole of Delhi so it is good to have one so close), an excellent butcher selling only pork and chicken (don't know why it doesn't do mutton), a convenience store, a chemist and a great book shop. It also has a nice handmade paper shop, a rather dubious gift shop and five different banks - another mystery.
This means I don't actually have to go to Khan Market too often and that is a good thing because it doesn't really open until 11am. As my only childfree time is between 9.15 and 11.45, that doesn't give me a whole lot of time to shop when you think about how many places I need to go to in order to fulfil our requirements. INA market is better. By 10.30, most of it is open.
The shopping hours seem to me to be extraordinarily illogical for a city which is so hot for most of the year. Why not start early, have a long siesta in the middle of the day and then stay open late instead of opening one hour before the sun hits its high point. Maybe things open earlier in the summer, maybe not. I suspect this is just the start of trying to understand Indian logic.
INA Market imported goods
INA Market imported goods
