The most important and frequently used Kashmiri eatables are: haakh (collard greens or kale), monj Haak (knol khol), tsochael(mallow), bamchoont (quince), kral mound (shepherds purse), saze posh (holly hock), nadur (lotus stem), praan (shallots), aubuj (sorrel), mawal (cockscomb), wushkofur (camphor), tila gogul (mustard) and gor (water-chestnut). The floating vegetable garden on the Dal Lake is the second largest wholesale market in the world. Men, young and old, on their wooden boats, argue about the price of plump pumpkins and gourds as they share cigarettes or hookahs. The water of Kashmir is sweeter, and that affects the taste and flavour of vegetables. The items for sale include tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, turnips, water chestnuts, leafy vegetables, and the famous nadur. A porous and fibrous lake vegetable, nadur has grown to become an irreplaceable ingredient in a traditional Kashmiri kitchen. Local accounts date its discovery to the 15th-century sultan Zain-ul-Abidin, who was introduced to the chewy delicacy while on a shikara ride on the Gil Sar lake located in the exteriors of Srinagar. Also, according to a popular legend, the yarn threads that Lalla Ded (1320-1392), the Kashmiri mystic saint wove were thrown into the Dal Lake when her tyrant mother-in-law ridiculed and taunted her for yarning it too thin. These got changed into the fibres of nadur for eternity.
