India Foodie Experience

Vegetarian Curry w/salad & Naan bread

Before we went to India, we went to Passport Health Clinic where we received several shots and a mini lecture on how to eat in India. Never eat fresh fruit, cold foods, or use ice at any time. After telling us several ways we could get sick, I asked the nurse if she’d ever been to India. Nope. All the same, we didn’t want to take any chances. It would be bottled water for us and prepacked snacks. We had accepted we wouldn’t eat much and even expected to lose weight.
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A welcome basket of apples awaited us in our room that we could not eat under any condition. While my husband was at work, I took an apple, washed it, rubbed it dry with a towel and ate it. No ill effects, no running to the bathroom, nothing. I thought it was a touch overripe, but that could have been because I waited so long to eat it.

Our hotel offered a buffet of delicious foods both continental and Indian. I slowly walked past the glistening cut fruit only to pick up a banana with its thick skin. No bad results, each day became an experiment of sorts. While seated upstairs at the bar, I had a moment of panic when I realized the frozen cocktail I’d been sucking down was full of ice. Alcohol should have killed any bacteria. After all wasn’t hand sanitizer full of alcohol. If it worked for hands, then the same should apply to stomachs.

Pathar Ke Kebabs

The majority of restaurants featured an open kitchen or the cooks working behind a glass wall, which allowed patrons to see what was going on. It also allowed diners to see they used honeycomb-shaped clay ovens referred to as a Tandoor oven. This oven is an integral part of the Indian cuisine.
 
Often we saw names of familiar foods only to discover they were an Indian variation. Pizza came with a paper-thin crust often with lamb, onions, feta cheese and a vinegary sauce. Unexpected when we expected a soft crust, tomato paste base, but welcome all the same. Food labels were different too.
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 Rolls in the delightful Khan Chacha eatery were more like wraps. Prawns served as another name for shrimp, a large, firm variety. Most of the foods we were able to figure out without too much trouble, but some were new to us.

Lamb roll from Khan Chacha

The sprouted barley salad tossed with onions was a different breakfast staple, especially coupled with brie cheese. Each day, I’d try to push out of my comfort zone by trying new foods. The chef, waiters, even new friends would explain the history about the food. The concierge brought us gingered pumpkin candy that came from his birthplace. The firm candy perplexed since it came in a firm barrel shape and had the consistency of gummy bears with none of the sugar.
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On Thanksgiving, we found ourselves in Agra where we stopped into a family-owned eatery. The restaurant eating experience was different too. We dined with two Indian friends and there was much discussion on what we would eat. Each dish would be shared among the four of us family-style. It was important to take in consideration the one vegetarian. The dishes arrived in bowls with rich curry sauce or gravy. Flat Naan bread allowed each diner to scoop up the gravy. 

Sprouted Barley Salad

Even though we hadn’t been in India that long, we were getting more daring in our food selection, which meant eating things we didn’t know. I enjoyed all the versions of paneer, which is dried cottage cheese shaped into cubes, patties, or crumbles. Lamb is a staple as far as meat and is as cheap as chicken. I indulged my lamb cravings.
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Vegetables comprise the majority of Indian diet and they show up in amazing places.  For dessert, I had a bell pepper pudding that was both sweet and custardy while retaining the flavor of the pepper. At times, the food can be very hot. The green Dal dip served at an Indian restaurant demonstrated this phenomenon very well.  Two bottles of water later, I still felt the fire. 

On my search for the familiar, I came up short on the Diet Coke hunt. I located a few bottles in a local convenience store, which were flat and unappetizing, definitely past their due date. Pepsi rules in India, but it is a less carbonated version. The better bet is the sparkling water.

Green Coconut Water

Our most daring venture wasn’t actually ours, but came about because a friend bought us fresh coconut water. A roadside vendor cut the top of a green coconut off with a sharp machete handed us the base and a straw. It was refreshing and certainly, a change from the metal and foil store container.  Over two weeks in India and we never tapped into the medicine we brought with us.
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On the way home, we encountered a sick woman in the airport. I handed her my never opened bottle of Tums. The only problem we had with eating in India was deciding what to try.