Local grocery market and snacks

We then walked through the local grocery market. There was a lot of jaggery on sale. This is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in colour. It contains up to 50% sucrose, up to 20% invert sugars, and up to 20% moisture, with the remainder made up of other insoluble matter, such as wood ash, proteins, and bagasse fibres. Jaggery is very similar in taste to muscovado sugar. Manish explained to us that jaggery is only sold in the winter months when it is an important source of heat-producing calories.

Our route then took us along a whole street of metal pot sellers - the kind we saw being made earlier in the tour. This led to a street of wedding shops selling everything needed for the reception party. Being a Sunday, many of these shops were closed, but we still saw groups of tribes women who had come into town from outlying rural areas to shop for wedding paraphernalia. 

We stopped at a sweet shop to try some traditional Rajasthani confectionery. I passed on these - they are basically 100% sugar. I did try a kachori at the next stop, though. These are dough balls stuffed with a spicy lentil mix and deep fried. They are served in a tamarind syrup. They sell for just 20 rupees each and are a filling snack.Read more