The etiquette of buying Vegetables!

Image courtesy : Complete Well Being

Incidentally grocery shopping happens to be one of my favorite shopping areas. As some of you know, I have a big weakness for fresh vegetables. When we were kids, mom mostly bought vegetables from the street hawker. I wouldn't say exactly a street hawker a.k.a sabjiwala. Once in a while when time permitted she would go to the nearest market and buy them in bulk. As kids we would tag along on these mini shopping ventures. So, began the art of buying vegetables. 

If you have to buy a tender Bhindi, you snap the edges of the vegetable. If it snaps tick and the edge falls off, you immediately put it in your basket. If you want to buy a Lauki, pinch it and see if your nail digs into it smoothly. Tomatoes have to be ripe but hard enough to not squish by the time you reach home. Greens have to be always green and shiny. So on and so forth...

All this while, the vendors would keep saying, "No Amma..you cannot do it". But who cares or who listens anyway? People would snap and pinch and press till they got the desired color, consistency and quality of the product. It is hard to forego those buying habits and techniques which were inculcated at a very young age. 

However, after moving to the U.S of A; vegetable shopping had been a slightly different affair altogether. There are no more sabjiwala bhaiahs who would shout tomato, mirchi, aloo, beans and the family of it. There are no Raitu Bazaars or Sabji Mandis. There are, only we discovered them much later. Somehow I felt it odd to snap or pinch the veggies any more. All I could do comfortably was to pick those that are fresh, green or shiny. As years passed, even picking each of them seemed silly or ridiculous to me. 

Please don't snap them:

Want to know the trigger for this post? The other day I had been happily shopping veggies for the week. I go to the bhindi table. Who can stop me when there is a heap of fresh, green bhindi? I was stuffing my bag to glory and then noticed a brown hand snap, snap, snap. I know it's not manners to stare at people; but you know I don't have good manners. So, I lift my head to have a peek at the person with brown hands. He stops for a second and continue snapping in a slow manner. The store manager happens to pass by arranging different vegetables and removing empty trays. Not sure if it was the store manager or my stupid gaze, the guy packed a few and left. I kept wondering if he really needed that little and he had to pick them? Whatever. I continued and finished shopping. While waiting in the line for billing, I was doing people watching. A good way to kill time. And here I see our bhindi guy with brown hands and a gold chain happily picking bhindi. Seriously??

Please don't break them:

Another thing that gets on to my nerves is breaking vegetables. Breaking the long vegetables like ridge gourd, snake gourd, drum sticks. Some people break them to fit into bags, which is okay. But breaking them to taste the bitterness or the freshness of the vegetable? NO.

Please don't pinch them:

Whenever people pinch vegetables with their nails to test how tender they are, I immediately feel like pinching or poking them in the same manner. 

Pick 'em up:

Leave about snapping, pinching, pricking and breaking. Let these all be their personal preferences. What irks me to no end is dropping vegetables while putting them into bags. You think it is popping pop-corn into your mouth while watching T.V lazily in your sofa? Come on!

I don't think people would behave the same way or continue the same habits in any American grocery store. Then why abuse Indian stores??

Raitu Bazaar - Farmers Market
Sabji Mandi - Vegetable Market
Sabjiwala Bhaiahs - Our neighborhood vegetable sellers
Bhindi - Okra
Lauki - Bottle Gourd