Stuff we have here that you don’t have there

A question came up recently on a forum I frequent after I complained about all the things we can’t get here. What can we get here that y’all can’t get, or can’t get to the extent we can here?

Limes are commonplace here, and lemons are rare at best. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen a lemon here, but nothing springs to mind.

What can we get here that you can’t get there? How about okra that’s a foot or longer, or wingbeans (dumballa is the approximate phonetic spelling in Sinhalese), gotakola (a leafy plant that you chop up for a sambol and it’s really good for memory), amburella (a fruit sorta akin to sour mangos that’s commonly eaten curried), jackfruit, breadfruit, rambutan, sprats, olives that are not actually olives but some mystery local vegetable that’s called olives, banana trees in anybody’s backyard, same with king coconut palms, red rice, fresh curry leaves, papaya trees in anybody’s backyard, kithul jaggery, watalappam (this is store bought and nowhere near as good as what Fahim’s mom makes – not by a delivering eggs long shot!), kiri dodol, capsicum (on the left, with Thai chillies, I think, on the right), muscat, Bombay onions and finger bananas, fishmongers who go door-to-door on bicycles or motorbikes, and beef stalls where the beef guy slices off a hunk of meat from the carcass hanging from the ceiling.

Of course, we also have guys in a crate on the back of his motorbike, trishaws, bullock carts, and odd lookin’ tractor thingies.

We also have elephants on parade, lizards living on our roof, lizards invading our garden, the same lizards invading our house, Chernobyl green bugs, geckos, bugs in our food, cows, cows, and more cows, even more cows stopping even more traffic, and squirrels that enter our house.

We even have sharwanis and elephant hats, and surprise of all surprises, Buddha statues.

Well, we have more than that, but that’s good for a start. 😀