For someone who enjoys Indian food, eating here was not part of my culture shock (or what I like to call my culture startle). But, food has been a very interesting part of my experience in India.
I often characterize myself as a food tourist. The first thing I do when I plan a trip to a different place is research where to eat. In India I did no research, and I didn't have to. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to stay with Lavanya and eat with her parents. Lavanya's mother is North Indian and her father, although he grew up in Delhi, is South Indian. So, eating at home has been a mix of both North and South Indian foods. Since I tend to ask fewer questions and just experience with my taste buds, the only thing I can definitively about the difference between North and South cuisine is that South Indian food seems more spicy and is often eaten with your hands.
My first few meals in India were a blur. I was still jet lagged and usually a zombie during dinner. The first meal I remember was our visit to a South Indian restaurant at Connaught Place. Here I ordered a thali. Thali is the name for the plate. The food used to be served on a banana leaf, but now is served on a large metal plate with a banana leaf on top. The thali is a combination of different dishes served in katoris (little metal bowls) with poori (a type of flat bread) and rice. This is all served on the plate with the bowls arranged in a circle around the edge and the pooris in the middle. You use the bread to eat with your hands. And, if you are into the entire experience you can put rice on the banana leaf with your right hand, dump one type of daal or vegetable on the rice, mix it up and then eat with your right hand. I did this a little bit, but felt a little more skilled at eating with a spoon.
We ate at a North Indian restaurant yesterday while in Agra. The food was different. North Indian food is a little more fatty, it uses more ghee (butter). Here we ordered Naan (my favorite Indian flat bread). Naan is cooked in a Tandoori, a clay oven. We also ordered Tandoori Aloo. Aloo means potato. This dish was a roasted potato that was wrapped around a filling of dates and other spices. It was very good. We ordered tandoori paneer as well. Paneer is a type of cheese that has the texture of tofu. It is very common in vegetarian Indian cuisine because it is healthy and has a good amount of protein. Along with the two dishes, we ordered raita. Raita is a yogurt side dish made with plain yogurt and onions, tomoatoes, and cucumber. All this food we also ate with our hands. We followed our meal with kulfi, a North Indian ice cream. This area is known for this dessert. We had pistachio kulfi. It is a harder ice cream than what we are used to and takes longer to melt. It also has a more subtle sweet taste with much more flavor in terms of spice and nut. It was really good. None of this food was very new to me in appearance, but in taste it was extremely different. Lavanya is ruining me. I will not be able to enjoy all my favorite Indian places in the States as much as I used to.
We also ate at a fancy buffet at the Radisson. Lavanya's parents' landlord took us out to lunch one day with his daughter and his wife.
[This man is actually a prince. So, now you all know that I ate with a prince while in India. He is a prince of an area in very North India, near the mountains. Lavanya's father explained to me that after Independence, all titles were no longer kept, but that the royal families continue to hold onto their titles in a cultural way (and often remain some of the more wealthier families). This prince was definitely wealthy. His wife and daughter spent the lunch talking about properties and international travel.]
The buffet was a mix of Indian, Asian, and Continental (European) food. It was all very good. But, of all things, it was the food at the Radisson that made us sick!
One drawback to being a tourist in Delhi is that I do not have the stomach and the bugs to eat everywhere. All these restaurants are very high end restaurants. We eat at these places because we can be sure that the water is bottled and the food is cooked well and the workers are clean. It would be great to try the street food or the food at the truck stops. But, to do that would risk spending my entire trip in the bathroom, or even worse, at the hospital. So, fancy food it is. I am just lucky that I have a home to go to and I can eat freely at Lavanya's family's table.
Eating at home has been the best part. Not only do you get to eat everything on the table without any worries about how safe things are, but Lavanya's mother is a very good cook. We eat something different every night and sometimes something different every afternoon. The staples on the table are yogurt and rice. And, there is always a daal (a soupy dish made with lentils that is put over rice). Lavanya's parents are vegetarians, so all the food either has lentils, vegetables, or paneer. Lavanya's father is South Indian so he eats with his hands, but her mother does not. So, the table itself is a mix of culture. Today lunch was especially good. We had a rotis (a common flat bread), which I especially like, a South Indian daal with yellow lentils and tomatoes, a green bean dish with lentils, and a paneer dish. [I apologize for not remembering the names, but Hindi does not have sounds that stick in my linguistic memory very well.] Today I ate with my hands since I started with the roti and already dirtied my right hand. Lavanya remarked that I was doing pretty well. I relished in the ability to appropriately eat with my hands without my mother or Ann to scold me!
When the food is eaten, it is often mixed. So, if you are eating with your hands you take some of the rice on your plate and poor daal over it or mix it with another dish. You mix it well by pinching it with your hand. If you like or if the food is too spicy you mix in yogurt as well. Then you use your thumb to place some of the rice mixture on your first three fingers and then (for lack of a better word) shovel it in your mouth. It is a little difficult to get the movement right, but once you do it is kind of fun. Eating with your hand using a flat bread is much easier.
Breakfast has often been cereal, but that is not because something else is not available. Pinky, the cook, makes rotis in the morning to eat with butter or yogurt. They are very good, but not so good for you. These rotis are made with wheat and she often puts onions in them. Then you can dip it in yogurt or butter them. I have eaten them a couple of times, but I feel a little awkward having a servant make food for me. So, I eat cereal at Lavanya's house more often. But, I guess it is interesting to eat the cereal since we use that kind of milk that doesn't need to be refrigerated until it is opened. I also start the day with Tulsi tea, which is supposed to be good for your health.
Today was a good day to write about food because I went grocery shopping with Lavanya. Going grocery shopping in India is not at all like going grocery shopping in the U.S. First of all, you have to go to at least two different places if you want dry goods and fresh goods. We went to the market that Lavanya's parents have been going to for 25 years. The grocery was a small room in a larger market. The walls were covered with cookies, mixes, toiletries, daal, and spices. Lavanya's mother had called ahead and gave a list to one of the workers. We checked the list and added some things, and then the employees went about to collecting what is needed (think old time general store in the U.S.). I stood and watched and then a stool was offered to me as a seat. Lavanya and I agreed that this was the equivalent of politely staying, "get out of the way." This is fair as the store had about as much moving room as a large hallway. And, much like my experience waiting in the copy shop, I was offered a chai tea. I am getting too used to good Indian chai tea as well.
Once Lavanya's father returned from his stop at the watch shop, I went outside to stand with him. This should be mentioned, the grocery was in the middle of a larger market that sold clothes and other items. You can get many different things in one place. After doing a little more shopping (I will blog about this later) we drove to the other part of the market to buy vegetables. This market was beautiful. What it would be like to live in a place with a year round growing season. There were so many fresh fruits and vegetables available and each stall looked like a unique rainbow.
For a tip, this boy carries your groceries to your car. I paid him an extra Rs 10 to take this picture of him. He had to fend off all the other boys who tried to tell us that we needed two of them to carry our goods. Dan tells me that at times there are fights between boys who want to work for the same person.
Look at all the beautiful vegetables. The orange things in the right hand corner are the carrots that are normal here. The correct (US) carrots in the middle are exotic.
Vendor weighing our goods.
Rows of vendors selling various fruits and vegetables.
The most beautiful stall. See the clothing in the back?
But, I should reflect on my experience with the food. While some days I love everything I eat, there are other days that I think, "as good as it is going to taste, Indian again?!?" There are other times when I am just not feeling well and think that Indian food is not something that I feel like at the moment. This is very interesting for an anthropologist to experience because I realize that Indian food is exactly what people eat here when they don't feel well. And, when I had a cold Lavanya's mother made me a special South Indian soup that is supposed to clear my sinuses. But, on those days all I wanted was some chicken soup or to find the first American restaurant (sadly only McDonald's or Dominos is nearby). So, I do miss the variety I get when I cook at home. But, in conclusion I will have to say that I have had some great food while I was here and some even better experiences. And, no, I will not be sick of Indian food when I return. I am hoping to buy some supplies (a roti pan and a spice holder) and cook Indian food when I return.
For those interested, you can check out Lavanya's recipe blog: tiffinbox.wordpress.com
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