How to include 6 tastes...

How do we include 6 tastes without stressing ourselves too much!
* Start your meal with sweet in your plate - just one or 2 pieces of any one of these
    - panaggal kandu (rock sugar I guess), dates, dry figs, chikku, raisins, jaggery, etc
* Salt, Spicy tastes are in most of the Indian meals, try including more black pepper
* Sour
   - Amla or big nellikkai - has both thuvarppu and sour
   - Tamarind, Mavathhal - dry mango, Raw Mango from Indian store
* Bitter - when I said few recipes on bitter gourd, people think I am eating pavakkai all the time
   - Try bitter gourd once or twice a week
   - soaked methi seeds
   - Methi or most leafy greens
   - Dry vathals from India like the manathakkali vathal, sundaikkai vathal
   - Easiest for people in US is Grapefruit, like 3times a week,
      not sure what it is called in India

From   http://www.mapi.com/ayurveda_health_care/newsletters/newsfood-bitter.html
*Bitter Taste:
    bitter melon and gourd, Japanese eggplant,turmeric
    fenugreek seeds, leafy greens, barley, basil
    nettle, jicama, lettuce, aloe vera

*Astringent Taste:
    apple,  pear, pomegranate (tastes sour on the tongue but is both astringent and bitter)
    quinoa, legumes, tofu, sprouts, beans, lentils

Note, you dont have to cook 6 items for 6 tastes, just try to get used to the easiest ones
or try mixing 2 or 3 tastes in one. Like the pavakkai aloo porial had - sweet, spicy, salt, bitter taste in one item!