Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Food!

As anyone who knows me is probably already aware, I love food.  When I think of past vacations or cities I’ve visited, often the first thing that comes to my mind is that one meal that still makes my mouth water.  For this reason, a good portion of my phone’s memory is dedicated to photographs of food.  I was surprised, then, to find that I’ve actually taken very few pictures of food since I got here. 

I’ve always loved Indian food, but it turns out that what passes for ‘Indian’ in the United States actually represents only a tiny fraction of the foods of the Indian subcontinent.  From what I’ve seen so far, the food in the U.S. is almost exclusively north Indian.  The names of foods on menus here are almost entirely unfamiliar to me, and the tastes are more foreign still.  Through trial and error (and a little help from people who know better than I do) I’m starting to figure out what I like.  With one exception, though, I’m still not blown away by any of the food I’ve eaten so far.

That one glorious exception is a ‘street food’ called dahi puri.  It’s similar to a food that a good friend once described to me as ‘Indian nachos,’ and consists of bite-sized, deep-fried, pastry like shells filled with chickpeas, yogurt, tamarind sauce, and who knows what other fabulous ingredients.  The combination is heavenly.  The best one I’ve had so far was from a small stand on the side of the road, and I was so enamored I forgot to take a picture (so I’ve borrowed one from google).  
Yummmmm
Apparently dahi puri is something that is only served in the evening (why not lunch??).  I’m still trying to figure out what exactly is served at what time of day…


For example, most everything in this picture is considered a breakfast food.  On the left are the accoutrements that come with nearly every meal, coconut chutney and sambar, a tomato-based soupy sauce.  On the right are the four things that appeared on my plate even though I only ordered two of them.  The white one, front left, is idli.  Despite having it explained to me repeatedly in broken English, it took a google search to convince me that it is in fact made of (de-husked) lentils and rice.  It doesn’t taste like much, but dipped in the chutney and sambar it’s delicious.  The two in the back are kesari bath and khara bath, which (again thanks to google) I now know are made of semolina.  One is sweet, the other savory.  The doughnut-like thing in the front left is I think called vadai?  It’s soaked in oil, slightly savory but nearly tasteless.  I don’t like it at all, but for some reason they keep serving it to me.


 The most common breakfast food here is called a dosa.  I’m not a huge fan, so I don’t have any pictures of the typical dosas (masala dosa- super fried and oily, or set dosa, basically a savory pancake), but here is an onion dosa that was actually super delicious. 

Most restaurants and households here serve food on metal dishes.  I’m not sure why this is, but it makes for a very interesting alarm clock when my landlord’s family does their dishes every day at 5AM.
 
Dessert or pond scum?
 Because this is a town that caters largely to yogis, it’s actually surprisingly easy to get western-style food, although it often has a distinctly Indian twist.  For example, this delicious homemade pasta was served with baby corn and took over two hours between ordering and eating.



I've now taken an Indian cooking class and a western-style baking class and somehow managed not to take any pictures of either, but here is a crème brulee made by the same pastry chef who taught the course.
Apparently it took him 2 years to find a blowtorch in Mysore
Another memorable meal was from when I was sick, shortly after arriving.  I was lying around my apartment in a daze, recovering, when I heard my landlord’s wife knocking urgently at my apartment door.  She burst in with a set of dishes, all stacked on top of each other and clipped together, and proceeded to take them apart and tell me what each of the foods were.  I was so deeply touched by this loving gesture and was thanking her profusely as she left when she said, “125 rupees! You pay tomorrow.”
Home cookin'
One last note on what is perhaps my favorite Indian food of all, chai!  The chai here is simply sweeter, creamier, spicier, and more delicious than you could imagine.  It (like everything else) is served in metal dishes, with a clever twist so as not to scald yourself on a regular basis.


The chai is served piping hot in a small metal cup, with a wider, shallower cup underneath.


You can then pour out the chai, either a little bit at a time or all at once into the broader dish in order to cool it and save yourself from third degree burns.  At this point I'm so spoiled I think it will be difficult to drink "chai" back in the states ever again...

I now have internet in my apartment for the first time in 6 weeks, so (hopefully) my posts will be a little more regular (and if anyone wants to skype, hit me up!).

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