TIFFIN 

Basale soppu goes by many names. It’s often called Mangalore spinach or vine spinach or, in the US, on the rare occasion when you can find it in non-Indian stores, it’s generally sold as Malabar spinach, after the stretch of coast on the West side of India that includes Kerala. In India, though, its names are even more numerous and diverse: in Gujarati it’s called poi ni bhaji, in Telugu it’s known as bacchali, and in Konkani it’s called vauchi bhaji. Whatever you call it, th

Breakfast takes all sorts of shapes and comes in a dizzying array of flavors. This recipe, for a stir-fry of basale soppu, comes from a woman named Jaya Gaonkar, whom I met in the coastal Karnataka town of Kumta. The area, near the temple complex of Gokarna, is famed for its salt pans and for its fisheries and Gaonkar told me that it wasn’t unusual for locals to eat fish for every meal because of its wide availability: some people even ate this simple and hearty mix of greens