She Who Shops A Lot

On Saturday, Heba, Heather and I had a lazy morning. Heba slept in and Heather and I bummed around in PJs, getting the apartment set up, etc. For breakfast, Abdul made us Masala omelets, which are like an egg crepe with onion, tomato and peppers baked into the egg. We also had toast, fruit and cardamom chai. The chai here so far seems to come in three varieties - Masala, cardamom, and ginger. All are good, though I might have a slight preference for the cardamom.

Well rested and fed, we headed for Delhi with our driver Dhananjay and a list of good shopping spots from the folks in the office. Our first stop was Dilli Haat, which is a handicraft market in Delhi with tons of stalls that were chock-a-block with shawls, stoles, kurtas, shoes, bedspreads and more. Bargaining here is expected and so, with Heba's help, I refreshed the skill set that I initially acquired in Mexico's mercados, with fairly good results. I am now the proud owner of a pashmina scarf, a wool stole, a silk and wool stole, and a huge wool shawl. The textiles here are so beautiful that it's hard not to get greedy. All of the above cost me less than $40, so I think we did alright on the bargaining. Heba and Heather also bought lovely shawls and Heather found a very nice, modern-looking kurta. There were a few moments of panic as we got ready to leave Dilli Haat because we couldn't find our driver. Three cell phones were working full time, all to no effect. Luckily, he had parked nearby and we were able to walk to and find the cab, complete with somnolent cabbie, and accompanied by much giggling from the parking attendant.

After Dilli Haat, we headed to Khan Market, which is sort of like a double-decker, double-wide strip mall in Delhi. We had a late lunch at Chonas, which was quite good. Despite the opportunity to have 'continental' food, we ended up going with Indian. Heather and I ordered the rather generically-labeled 'chicken masala roll,' but it ended up being really yummy - spicy chicken and vegetables, rolled in a large, thin naan bread, with a creamy chutney (possibly sour cream and cilantro) sauce for dipping. We topped it off with a strawberry milkshake (Heather), salty lemonade (Heba), and a mango smoothie (me). Refreshed after our snack, we were off to tackle the warren of Khan market. Probably my favorite spot was Fabindia, which is sort of like a large, Indian-influenced Crate and Barrel, that also sells traditional Indian clothes. I bought a medium-length kurta, which is usually worn over traditional pants, but in Google Gurgaon chic is most often seen with jeans and flats. I also bought some very nice Indian wrapping paper at the stationery store, to replace the newsprint that was used to line my closets at the apartment.

Once we'd made a few passes through Khan Market, we were tuckered out and ready for a cocktail. We headed for a restaurant that we thought was called 'Olive,' and ended up at 'Olive Beach,' which is attached to the Hotel Diplomat. Since the bar looked lovely, we decided to stay where we landed. We were ushered into a very tastefully decorated bar with whitewashed walls, turquoise accent pillows, crackled antique silver mirrors and silvery buckets of white gladiolas. I had a cocktail called a Passionata that was a mixture with basil and some sort of passionfruit with black seeds - similar to what in Mexico is called a maracuya। It was very tasty. We also had a foie gras appetizer and a mushroom and prosciutto pizza, which were fabulous. We headed home and watched a very little bit of one of my DVDs before all three of us were sacked out. Definitely a decadent day, even by US standards, but so much fun to hang out with the girls and enjoy a bit of the culture.