Tighten your purse strings…inflationary times are here!

IF you’re working class people inflation is really pinching and hurging these covid times. I feel anarchy is upon us and in this scenarios whoever quotes price they wish without rhyme or reason, like these pile of wild olmi or jungle mushrooms I spied in the Panaji morning pavement market last week – they looked so evocative of morning mist and I know they taste scrumptious, but the woman quote Rs700 and of course there no way I would buy them! I guess with bargaining she would have come down to Rs500. Doesn’t know it’s illegal now to pick these olmi from the wild and market them?
But I always remember what my old friend Caitano Martins of Panaji used to tell me and that is, “I just have these rotting logs of wood in my backyard and the olmi just sprout up beautiful every monsoon season, I get them collected and we enjoy them in omlet and xacuti…” Good idea.
Back to inflation, life has become so inflationary I’ve literally stopped mall shopping where the overheads are higher and prices for many goods higher most times…in the open pavement markets I now pay Rs5 for a tomato, Rs30 per six tomatoes and the vendor said she was doing me a favor! So naturally if the tomatoes rot in the fridge if I don’t use them up in time, I damn well feel guilty.
I don’t often shop for confectionary pastries and soft breads like buns but here again I find the high class bakeries and cake shops won’t let you shop for one soft golden raisin studded soft white sweet bun! You must buy at least three in a plastic pack of three for Rs35. So you eat one (white bread is excellent for tightening up a bad stomach suffering from diarrhea or loose motions), in fact if you want a bit of constipation in your life, be sure to eat some refined white sliced industrial bread!
We eat a lot of bread in Goa, never mind that ghastly things go into it. Nutritionists’ talk will of course say, don’t, but what do we care. Even if bread is not what it used to be to begin with once upon a time when it was baked at home and 100 percent wholesome non-GMO wheat flour was used… still, if one is choosing amongst a galaxy of bread which is the staff of life in Goa for many, try the poie bun of Café Central, it’s the best by far although it will keep only for two days. I wish they would also make their garlic loaf of whole wheat flour! A pity the loaves don’t come sliced, at one time they did sliced whole wheat loaves, what happened?
Funny, how I keep saying I want to go off white bread of any kind but it never happens! Ditto with refined white rice. It’s a daily choice of bread or rice and sometimes I feel like I never want to see either any more for the rest of my life, if only I could better organize it! These rainy days I remember my steamed flour of childhood whereby all the goody good finely milled fresh flours of various rice or millet like pearl millet would be steam cooked in tempered and seasoned boiling water…and one would savor these “bajra-no-lot” or “papdi-no-lot” and even “patuda-no-lot” (a grainy flour of mixed pulses) on rainy evenings, laced with fresh ghani til or sesame seed oil which had a celestial flavor of its own.
Oh yes, I would consider these as health food of the very best kind. Garlic chutney would be served along with these steamed flours. And Maharashtra country homes have their “pithla” thick and thin to enjoy with jowari bhakri roti (pithla is basically tempered besan or gram flour steam cooked and spiked with flavorings and oftentimes chopped greens). Greens could be chopped green coriander, fenugreek leaves, spinach, mint leaves, radish leaves, spring onions, spring garlic, this monsoon season the delight of water steam-cooked meals!