Babur soon set about planning and planting gardens and brought in seeds, plants and gardeners from Kabul and Persia to grow his favourites – melons (prized for their restorative power), peaches, apricots, pistachios, walnuts and almonds. He does not tell us a lot about the types of food he enjoyed, but there is much mention of bouts of wine drinking and of a refreshing drink called julabmost (sherbet). He talks of a sheep being made into kebabs; chikhi, a eat dish incorporating a paste of wheat flour and ginger which also appears later at Akbar's table and is still in the repertoire today. This gives us a clue that spices had found their way into the Moghul kitchen. Babur appeared to enjoy the luscious mangoes of his new land and gives instructions on two ways of eating them – 'Punch a hole in it,' he writes, 'and squeeze or suck the juice out, the other is to eat it like a peach.' He likened the Indian jackfruit (a member of the durian family) to a sheep's stomach stuffed and made into gipa, a thick soup, but makes no reference to the smell of the fruit, often repugnant on first encounter. We do know that Babur employed Hindustani cooks – and that they were bribed to poison him. They made a good attempt, but as they were being watched they could not drop the poison powder directly into the cooking pot, so they hastily sprinkled it on the bread, probably naan or roti, and covered it with 'buttered fritters'. Besides, they had to have first taste from the cooking pot! Babur fell ill and reprisal was swift, certain and cruel – the negligent taster was cut into pieces and the cook was skinned alive.

Babur reaped rich rewards from his conquest of the Delhi sultanate and his reign saw the beginnings of the opulence and luxury associated with the Moghuls. The treasures of five kings fell into Babur's hands after the Battle of Panipet in 1526, but 'He gave it all away,' said his daughter Gul-Badan. Humayun, Babur's son, came back gloating with pride and clutching an enormous diamond believed to be the Koh-I-Nor (the Mountain of Light), so named later by the Persian plunderer, Nidir Shah. Babur nonchalantly returned it to Humayun to keep, but not before mentally noting its worth which, he calculated, would 'provide two and a half days' food for the whole world'. Babur divided much of the treasure among his loyal followers, including gifts to the ladies of the harem and to the female heads of household departments.

To each begum is to be delivered as follows: one special dancing girl of the dancing girls of Sultan Ibrahim, with one gold plate full of jewels – ruby and pearl, cornelian and diamond, emerald and turquoise, topaz and cat's eye – and two small mother-o'-pearl trays full of ashrafis, and on two other trays shahrukhis, and all sorts of stuffs by nines – that is four trays and one plate.