Grocery Markets in Siliguri-Picking Tomatoes and Turnips

Though I stayed in Siliguri, a city in West Bengal, for more than two months, I have not written a blog post on it, yet.

The reason could be that I was busy ~~with a creative writing project~~ writing my book that took all my time. I was not venturing out a lot either. With my head down in writing from six am until I got up to meditate and do a little yoga before sleeping, I wasn’t actively exploring the Siliguri city. My partner, Sagar, and I visited a national park which could be, at best, called a zoo: some tigers and bears were in cages and the rest roamed near them. I don’t understand why were the animals put behind bars.

the caged tiger in siliguri bengal — the caged tiger, North Bengal Wild Animals Park, Siliguri

the others walking outside growling (1) — the other tigers pacing outside, growling

The most I did was walk out into the open grasslands around the suburban house. A stream, which was not so clean, cut through the land. Though the area was dirty, it had long dry copperish grass on which buffaloes and cows grazed while locals shepherded them. Seated on the ground, groups of youngsters talked, played music, and smoked. Sometimes, they drank.

On sunny winter afternoons, families lit bonfires and cooked meals. Those winter days with families and friends chattering around in the open area made me miss my own family. I wished I could do a bonfire with my parents, too. But when I strolled in the ground the next day after the picnics, plastic glasses, polythene bags, and other garbage were strewn all about the earth. Once, a man had made a big fire and was putting all the garbage in it. As I picked plastic cups from the ground and threw them in the fire, I smiled at him. He didn’t. Sagar and I left him alone. Maybe, he wanted to be by himself.

the stream near our house in siliguri — The stream near our house in Siliguri

the stream around our house and the forest in siliguri — The stream around our house, and the forest

Mostly, I went to the pastures alone. Passing houses and people huddled over little fires outside their independent homes, I reached the open grounds. I took the most obscure tracks through the tallest golden grass to be hidden from the locals roaming about. Thus I reached a little pool: a part of the stream I liked to walk next to. When I am in nature, I am not alone. Sometimes others try to disturb that solitude though. Once I was reading a travel book on a bed sheet I had spread on the ground under a tree. A man cycling past by many times. I wouldn’t be surprised if finding me alone, someone would have come to bother me.

Mostly, everyone minded their own business in those riverine lands around our house which we had rented first for a week, then for a month, and later for another month. (I would share the story of how our host made our stay miserable another time.)

Around our house in Siliguri city, West Bengal

the author priyanka gupta in a copper pasture in Siliguri city — Yup, that’s me

Another reason I have not written a post on Siliguri yet is that I have been thinking of something big to write about. In a city, whose things to see list ends at a few national parks, which were more like zoos, there was nothing big to do. Home, writing, pastures, cooking, eating out on Sunday afternoons, shopping, playing with dogs and cats, saving our clothes from the neighbors, and then grocery shopping. The end.

A couple of days ago, I realized I do have something big to share: one of the weekly vegetable markets in Siliguri.

who can avoid buying these fresh vegetables. as shown in photo spinach broccolo potato tomato cauliflower red radish white radish some people standing one of the best markets in Siliguri — Who can avoid buying these fresh vegetables? One of our go to weekly vegetable markets in Siliguri, West Bengal

Grocery markets have always fascinated me. As a little girl, my father used to take me to our city’s vegetable market. We walked to the bazaar together, he shopped and filled many bags, and we carried the fresh produce home. I have continued the practice of buying vegetables and fruits myself from a local market to date.

Greengrocer fairs spread around the streets and roads enchant me more than many other things.

First of all, the bazaars are colorful. All the produce is put on a show in their best colors. Vendors throw water on vegetables and fruits all day long. Shiny flower garlands wait to be bought and adorned in hair or put on the gods and goddesses. Coconuts in their husky shells pile up on the roadside. Little pyramids of bright spices can fool anyone into buying some more even though the spice boxes at home are full. Pulses, rice, ropes, baskets, combs, pins, pots-everything is for sale, and everything is bought.

The urgency of the shoppers enlivens the bazaar. Women, men, couples, and parents with their children stock up their baskets and large bags with produce enough to last them a week. These are special weekly markets that sell things at a cheaper price than the regular stores. These buyers wobble through the stalls spitting out onto the twelve-inch lanes, their eyes still fixated on the spread and mind calculating what more they need or were asked to bring. Haggling is a must. Hand-waving will happen. Some customers nod their heads in disbelief and walk away. Sellers also shake their heads to send away a customer who asks for a price that has upset the greengrocer.

Thirdly, these markets show a lot about the local culture. Who buys what vegetables? Are fruits being sold and consumed? What do people say to each other about the hawker who was quoting a higher price than the rest? What do locals wear while out shopping? Which fruits are local and which greens are present in which season?

Just by visiting green grocery bazaars of India (and elsewhere), you can get the pulse of the geography.

Fourthly, I love to buy fruits and vegetables, a trait of my father I believe, I love to cook, a feature of my mother, and I love to eat: something of my own. There’s something special in making the time to go to the market, grabbing shopping bags at the last minute before leaving or returning to the house to get them, and walking for an hour or more through that hotchpotch of people and grocery.

The touch of the coarse guava or the plump sour country tomato, the fragrance of the fresh green coriander or the powdered red chili, the sight of the pile of crisp pink onions tightly wrapped in their shells and golden bunches of banana, the rhythmic well-rehearsed and well-timed calls of the sellers, and the saliva oozing out of my mouth imagining the food I will make with the overflowing bags-all of these make me go back to the vegetable markets no matter where I am.

Though I don’t reside in cities where I can order things online, going to a market is more of a necessity for me than a choice. Still, the immersion of the five senses in physically visiting a grocery bazaar and buying my food cannot be beaten by any of the online apps. Even in Bangalore, even during the pandemic, I was visiting the supermarkets and local grocers with masks on, waiting in the queue to be let inside the shop. Well, until I started ordering medicine-free produce online.

Needless to say, picking every mango or every bean by oneself is the only thing that can ensure you are eating fresh food of the highest quality. For almost a month at a friend’s place in the outskirts of Calcutta where getting the local greens wasn’t the easiest, I was ordering simple fruits and vegetables through an app. Not only the items were expensive, but they weren’t the freshest or the best produce of the season. Sometimes, the potatoes were sprouted and the onions dull. When I finally left her house and got onto the roads of Bengal, I came across papayas such plump and alive and sparkling onions and potatoes that the delivered products seemed lifeless as compared to them.

For me, grocery markets are places that keep the era alive when things were done well, no matter how much time they took.

So for now, I want to share pictures of the Siliguri market I visited on most Mondays until I got so busy that I instructed Sagar to buy what was needed and sent him away. Hopefully, the vibrant colors of the verdure would lure you into stepping through the grocery bazaars yourself.

Visiting One of the Best Vegetable Street Markets in Siliguri – the Everyday Delights

Let me take you to the heartbeat of Siliguri, a city that (they say) has nothing special apart from being the Chicken’s Neck through which the rest of India is connected to the Northeast of the country. Though the market was in Siliguri, it could be any other green street market in India.

broccoli spring onion onions potatoes fresh produce siliguri market west bengal — Those deep colours! The long aisle of fresh produce, Siliguri vegetable market.

greens of all kinds as shown and taken photo in markets in siliguri — The kind of greens people eat changes from state to state. Mustard greens are popular in Bengal, but so are bok choy and other greens used in Asian cuisine.

new pink potatoes tomatoes spinach fenugreek chilies more greens Siliguri market grocery bazaar west bengal — new pink potatoes in Siliguri market, or as they say, Siliguri Sabji mandi in Hindi. When I ordered new pink potatoes online in Calcutta, I would get such brown potatoes that I claimed refunds on them. The potatoes looked brown and old, not pink and new. But look at these beauties in the market. Very close to what you get in Peru.

not so happy that we are clicking her picture — More potatoes. Three things are sold throughout India, and probably the world: tomatoes, onion, and potatoes.

seller vegetables fruits siliguri weekly market — We have so many greens, that even though I control, I end up buying more vegetables than I can eat in a week. Also this one was the wholesale vegetable market in Siliguri. I mean you could buy things in bulk.

fresh produce of a different kind, eggs, onion flower, lemon, chilies of various kind, mushrooms, potatoes on street in siliguri market — Eggs, various mushrooms, greens, lemon, chillies, potatoes: this vendor promised a health benefit with each of the products he sold. This is for sugar, this for blood pressure, this for stomach, and so on. Once I took the tiny potatoes from him (for taste, not for sickness) only to repent the purchase.

some interesting things in Siliguri market — A closer look. One does get a virtual closer look of vegetables and fruits on online apps. But could you ever compare that to this?

when shrines are no parking signs, a small temple with a no parking sign on it and behind it a rickshaw — When shrines have no-parking signs.
Also notice the tri-rickshaw that is pulled by Indian men. I have seen the tri-rickshaw in North, West, and East India.

little tiny potatoes — the little potatoes. they may look pretty but good luck cleaning and cooking them if they have spots.

so many vegetables in the photograph fresh green vegetables of india — waiting quietly in a Siliguri market.

a tea seller on the roadside, bent down on his earthen stove lit with coal on which he is making tea the photo tells many stories — This photograph is not that from any of the vegetable markets in Siliguri. I took this picture while walking around in the streets. How this old man sat on a low wooden stool cooking tea on coal for customers made me think of the poverty in India. What is he thinking, I wonder.

a very bengali handkerchief i should have bought — Handkerchiefs that I have been using since I was a little girl. This red one is a very Bengali handkerchief that I should have bought.

peanuts being roasted in a black wok over earthen pot lit with wood — peanuts being roasted whole in sand over wood fire. This is food as mobile as it gets. Along with peanuts, a paraphernalia of snacks one gets on such hand-pulled carts. This was not in the vegetable fair, but in the streets of Siliguri.

money being handed for roasted peanuts being sold on a cart

peanuts being roasted in sand on siliguri streets — I seem to have tonnes of pictures of peanuts.

Believe it or not, simple roasted peanuts are so hard to find in big cities. Neither in any fancy stores or regular supermarkets do I get the kind of simple roasted peanuts I like. In Siliguri, I searched for big packets of roasted peanuts that were still in their pink skin. But I didn’t find any. Somehow, outside the Siliguri market, I found this old peanut seller who roasted peanuts on his stall every day. Now I get into the old lanes and allies of a town or a city to find the good old peanut stalls. The lanes of India remain the same.

another guy hard at work on the road in siliguri, a cobbler at work on siliguri street, west bengal — Another guy hard at work on the road, Siliguri city

fresh sugarcane juice being squeezed out on a cart with a handheld machine run by an old man, behind him are shops — And another one. Sugar cane juice, again something that sells in all of India. From the West to the East and from the North to the South.

the sugar cane juice seller making the juice in picture also sugar canes and mint

the seller freshening up the cabbage by peeling a few outer skins surrounded by all kinds of fresh vegetables — The vendor is freshening up the cabbage by peeling its few outer skins. My father can always tell fresh vegetables from the rest. Practice makes a human perfect. Again, Siliguri grocery market, or, as they say in Hindi, Siliguri Sabji market

everything you ever need bangles hair bands siliguri market — In the main market of Siliguri. Everything you might need for your hair, and other accessories.

old style sewing machines still found in bengal (1) — These old-style sewing machines which are run by the foot are still being sold in West Bengal. I wonder which other states have them.

Waiting for the guy to hand me spinach. The weekly Monday vegetable fair in Siliguri. — Waiting for the guy to hand me spinach. The weekly Monday vegetable market in Siliguri.

Dry fish of various kinds. Sharp, silver, pointy: beautiful each one of them. more dry fish big and small siliguri west bengal in a street market — Dry fish of various kinds. Sharp, silver, pointy: beautiful each one of them.

I still don’t understand how Bengalis or other communities cook dry fish. I know that some fry with coconut, others put them in rice, many fry the dry fish and prawns with chilli, but I still don’t know how one cooks them. Are they to be washed first? If so, then which preparation would go with what? Not sure. Help me, please. At least, until I quit eating sea animals, too.

more dry fish omg — couldn’t help but share these white stars

dry fish being sold in siliguri green grocer weekly market — a close-up

dry fish and turmeric in siliguri market (1) — silver versus yellow

only in bengal can you see the dry fish and spices together-a cultural nugget i couldnt have learned if i hadn't visited the local grocery bazaar — How they spark! Only in Bengal can you see the dry fish and spices being sold together: a cultural nugget I couldn’t have learned if I hadn’t visited the local grocery bazaar in Siliguri.

spices and spices — Things I love India for. Wherever you go in India, spices follow you.

the woman who kindly let me click the pictures — The kind woman who let me take the pictures of her fish and spice stall outside Siliguri main market.

In India, you can tell the place by seeing the list of news paper being sold on the streets.

amul milk cart — An Amul milk cart. I had a fan girl moment when I spotted this cart outside a supermarket Sagar and I frequented in Siliguri.

and after grocery shopping glistening noodles in siliguri — Refuelling after the grocery shopping. A very glossy-because it is oily-chowmein: made with noodles and vegetables in a Siliguri street shop. My partner can’t resist these while I can’t eat a plateful, only a few spoons.

both together momos and noodles chowmein siliguri food — Ah, the whole combination. Momos and chowmein: the kings of East India, at least these two dishes were the most sold in Siliguri to visitors who weren’t expected to have much knowledge of the East Indian food. But, it was assumed that everyone recognises momos and chowmein. If we asked for a more typical north-eastern dish, we were told we wouldn’t like it.

and then the meals that came out of the purchase — The meals that came out of the purchase.

Unsurprisingly, I don’t have many pictures of the food I cooked back in Siliguri. One, because I was busy. Two, the food was so good we gulped it down. Three, as Sagar and I eat either one or two meals a day, we would be hungry by the time the food was ready. Why do we eat only one or two meals? I have described intermittent fasting in the article on mindful and healthy living, where I talk about a lot of other healthy and loved practices I follow every day. PS: the rotis aren’t burnt, I like them a bit more charred than usual.

on most days this fruit basket used to be filled, this is saturday, see this on monday — Our kitchen window.

I don’t have a great picture of our filled fruit basket. The sun coming through the tree-shadowed window behind the kitchen isn’t making things clearer either. But I was thankful for that window, the tree outside it, and the birds that often watched me with suspicion from its branches. Whenever I’ll have a home, I’ll have an outdoor kitchen, right in the garden that would be more like a forest. Ssshh, don’t tell anyone.

not my preferred method of buying things — Not my preferred method of buying things. Why would I want to sit at home all the time?

cotton is still filled in mattresses the old style in bengal — Mattresses are still being prepared in the old way in West Bengal. At my parent’s home, too, an old woman used to come, ask if we needed any new mattresses or had to get the old ones fixed, then she would take the mattress home, and bring us the new one. Cotton is reused over a long cycle.

on the last day of 2022 in siliguri west bengal — On the last day of 2022 in Siliguri West Bengal. Siliguri is home to many different cultures.

a beautiful view of mountains from our home — Though you can see the mountain range, the icy peaks that I used to see from my guesthouse in Siliguri aren’t visible in this picture. I am pretty sure that on clear days, we could see as far as Kanchenjunga.

Now as I sit in a hotel room in Mysore in Karnataka and publish this photo essay on the vegetable and fruit market in Siliguri, I miss a kitchen where I could cook all sorts of things. But, at least, when I had a stove, I used it to its full capacity.

Pots, cookers, and pans,

in my kitchen you find them all sizzling,

greens, purples, and red,

I treat them all equally,

every tomato is picked by hand,

and every bean knows its destiny,

that’s my tummy.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What are some of my recommended places to stay in Siliguri?

Booking the Mayfair Tea Estate in Siliguri (after we left the apartment, which I don’t recommend) was the best decision, and I thoroughly recommend the place to anyone looking for a green escape near Siliguri. It is an expensive stay, but Siliguri doesn’t have many nice stays, the tea estate is free to be explored, and I have another word for you: peacocks. In the lush tea estate, I found the treasure of nature. Sagar took a day off, we plunged into the large bathtub for hours, drinking wine, and we went on long walks through the tea plants. Book the Mayfair Tea Estate here. Enjoy!

Did you enjoy reading about this Siliguri market? Tell me in comments if you buy your groceries yourself, and if not, why?

Read Next: How We Found a Home With a Kitchen in a Small Wayanad Village (Kerala), and used it fully.

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3 thoughts on “Grocery Markets in Siliguri-Picking Tomatoes and Turnips”

Shalinee
November 25, 2025 at 5:46 pm
I was in Siliguri (I am not from there) a month ago and visited the vegetable market, and just like you I found the market a feast to the eyes. Thanks you for putting up such a detailed blog, I truly enjoyed reading and wtaching the images.
bruce
January 21, 2024 at 12:25 am
Hi Priyanka,
I loved the photo of the elderly gentleman preparing chai on the streets of Siliguri… this image epitomizes one elderly man’s quiet grace and dignified humility as he ekes out a meager living selling chai on the streets of India.. although one can only see the side of his face, he maintains an air of composed calm, seated simply on a wooden stool amidst cracked concrete….there’s no hint of bitterness or distress marring his expression, only pure acceptance.
- Priyanka Gupta
  January 22, 2024 at 11:52 am
  Hi Bruce,
  Thanks for your beautiful comment. Your observations are to-the-point, and he looked pretty resilient. I am glad I could capture his image.
  Regards
  Priyanka