Certain vegetables are simply unavailable in Bangkok, so I buy them in Mumbai whenever I pass through. Specifically, these are arbi, zamikand or suran, tondli, methi, tinda and long karelas. My market of choice is crowded east Matunga, where all the south Indian groceries are, so I can pick up fresh, home-made Coimbatore ghee and sun-dried salted lemons as well.

My vendor of choice is Lakshmi Prasad from district Rae Bareli, UP. Like nearly every other vendor in Matunga, Lakshmi Prasad uses the rusty old beam balance called tarazu, the kind that has two pans and has to be held aloft manually. For counterweights, he uses cast-iron blocks with masses of a kilogram, and 500, 250 and 100 grams. If your vegetables don't equal some combination of those weights, he'll throw in some pebbles and wing it. Of course, he'll also subtly nudge the pans as he holds them to skew the weight and shortchange you. Summary: you'll pay more for less.