Gudimalkapur Flower and Vegetable Market

Today's adventure took me to the Gudimalkapur flower and vegetable markets here in Hyderabad.  The market is open from very early in the morning and will go all day - it seems that if a vendor runs out of his chosen produce, he is magically able to find more, or even just sell something else.

As you arrive, the smell of flowers hits you hard and the colour and vibrancy of the market is something special.  Everyone is haggling for the best price on their flowers while the bikes and tuk-tuks are beeping and rushing to get their flowers to their destination.   The majority of the flowers are sold as 'buds' (no stems) for arrangements in flower bowls and for use in garlands for festivals and pooja celebrations.  It is actually not that easy to find stemmed flowers, however, we did find a few and they were ridiculously cheap.  I think it was 4 large bunches of roses for under $7 AUD.  It surely is a sensory explosion at an Indian Flower market.

After the flower market we ventured over to the fruit and vegetable market and this is a whole other experience.  The smell of chillies gets deep in to your throat and it's hard to not cough and sneeze.  It is still difficult for me to know what to do with a lot of the Indian vegetables, but I am trying to understand how to cook them and am hoping to learn even more in the coming months.  As you can see by the photos below, the quality of the produce is great and again, if you haggle it is a bargain.

Please enjoy the photos from today's outing.

The fruit and vegetable vendors that have these carts on the side of the road do a roaring trade

Everyone needs a belly laugh :)

Pomegranate Heaven !

Lotus Flowers 

Now that's 'not quite a knife' 

chilli mash ?

they could just put then in a pile but no, they arrange beautifully 

Eggplants........

Bitter Guord - crazy looking fruit and, in my opinion, hideous to eat 

More bitter gourd.... apparently this one is NOT as bitter

organised chaos

a job for everyone

Blacksmiths hard at work.