As well as a zillion peacocks dancing, and a pair of jackal, and a couple of kingfishers, and stray dogs galore, and the usual earlybird walkers and runners in the Aravali Biodiversity Park, this morning I saw a gentleman collecting berries from a bush.
He does this most mornings.
He’d already told me a few days ago that the berries are called “teet” in Hindi and that you make an “achar” or pickle from it (friends, won’t you PLEASE give me the Hindi spelling and should you know it, the English name? Or even the botanical name? Thanks).
So this morning I asked him how to make the achar and, for good measure, whether you can eat the berries raw from the bush.
They have to be red and ripe to eat them raw, he said, reaching up and plucking one for me.
“Kha lo” he told me, so I did, I kha-ed it on the spot. Great for my digestion he assured me.
Now, back to the achar recipe.
And I am open to correction if I have made any mistakes:
• Soak green berries in salted water for a week until they turn yellow.
• Drain and dry in the sun.
• Then cook them with chilli, haldi (turmeric), salt, pepper, ginger, garlic.
Voila – teet achar.
And here is my cooking friend, who, when I asked him whether he ate the berries raw or only achar-ified, replied “8 or 10 every day,” opening his mouth and showing me a mush of half-masticated stuff on his tongue.
I decided not to take a photo.
Said it before, saying it again.
There is NO such thing as a dull run in India.
#stoppdforaphoto
#outforarun