C8/8, Vasant Vihar - - hosting our first kids’ hangout

This week, Adam asked whether we could host 8 or so kids from the American School at our apartment for dinner, and some of them would sleep over. We always love making our home “hangout central,” and so we agreed without hesitation. (We are not fully ready for this; still waiting for furniture to arrive, etc…but we figured we would wing it.) I have a repertoire of foods that I make when the kids have friends over, and so I planned a meal around these familiar dishes. Amnon also got some wonderful roti and paneer and other sauces at an Indian market. I opted to make “corn pashtida” (an Israeli crustless quiche) and a chocolate chip cookie cake. I went to the market to get the ingredients needed. Some of the things we consider staples in the US are just not that common here. These include cheddar cheese, and corn. Our local market has a lot of western offerings, and so it was easy to get the supplies. But since cheddar is non-standard, I paid the equivalent of $10 or so for a couple of small cheddar blocks. And another $5 or so for canned corn. It occurred to me that I am preparing an $18 quiche…a bit excessive, especially for India. I have since been told by some of my new expat acquaintances that there are Indian versions of some of these products, although the store owner is delighted to sell the expensive imports if you don’t specifically ask for the Indian versions - - and some expats probably want only the brands that they know. I am just fine with “going native.” I would happily go native with all of my recipes, but I will need to learn to “cook Indian.” As it is now, when we go to Indian markets with no western imports, I don’t know what most of the products are, or how they are used…I hope to learn…