Trailing Off....: The Real Reason I Went to India

Sunset dinner with Taj Mahal in the background

The first time I had Indian food was when I was 19 in Ames, Iowa. On the main road near the university there was a little hole in the wall place next to a cinema that I'm sure is no longer there. I walked by it a few times, intrigued by the smells, and finally ventured in. I don't remember what I had but I was hooked. When I moved to Houston, I drove into dangerous neighborhoods just to get takeaway. The lovely couple who ran the Taj Mahal Restaurant in Nanjing, China greeted us like old family when we went in for our weekly feast. The woman who runs Namaste in Hat Yai, Thailand came to know us as well and tried to give some useful advice on how to get our visas to her country.

I was interested to experience a bit of Indian history and see mountains and hill stations and UNESCO sites and all the rest. But really, I came to India to eat. And India did not disappoint.

One thing that I think would surprise many people is that most Indians are vegetarians and so therefore, most restaurants are as well. If a restaurant has meat options, they are advertised on the menu as non-vegetarian, the exact opposite of how Western menus work.

Next door to our hotel in Delhi. Some of the best and cheapest seekh kebab with roti and spicy green chutney I've ever had.

The choices of vegetarian vittles are endless. Here are a few we sampled.

A typical thali. This one with a variety of things I can't remember and puri bread. In many places, the thalis are all you can eat. A man comes around with giants containers of the stuff and gives you more. All for usually less than 2euros.

Vegetable curry and vegetarian kofte. Kofte means something like meat ball. These are made with chickpeas, lentils, etc and are kind of like a moist falafel in a rich curry.

One of my favourite meals. This was in Rajastan. The stuff on the left is a traditional curry made with a lot of yohurt. The bits inside are something like gnocci. The dish on the right is roasted eggplant in a tomato sauce. Divine.

A vegetable curry with big chunks of paneer, Indian cheese. This was at a vegetarian restaurant in Darjeeling.

giant dosa, a pancake like thing filled with whatever you want. This one had potato and paneer.

Vegetable jalfrezi, the absolute best preparation.

Indian food has nearly converted me to vegetarianism. All of the vegetarian meals we had were varied with rich and complex flavours and textures. Being a vegetarian would be easy if Indian flavour profiles were used. However, Indians also know how to make some mighty fine meat dishes as well. Tandoori--yoghurt and spice marinated meat cooked in a clay oven. Kebabs. And this Mughali stuff below that doesn't look great but nearly put me in a coma it was so good.

First lamb course at Karim's, a world famous place in Old Delhi. It was absolutely the BEST thing I had in India and after I was sick for about 2 weeks. I refuse to blame the food.

Karim's kitchen. They have an assortment of lamb curries as well as kebabs and koti rolls.

The stuff on the left was some kind of organ meat. I still don't like the taste. The other stuff is tandoori. No vegetables on the menu!

Jaipur was a depressing place. Luckily they had this tandoori place that also served pitchers of beer!

Tandoori at our dive bar, Rendezvous, in Shimla.

Tandoori food stall near train station in Delhi.

Restaurants are great, especially to process the chaos of walking for 3 hours. And even more especially if said restaurant serves beer or even cold soda. However, street food is its own category; its' dead cheap; and it's everywhere. The only problem is a plateful of liquid curry can be a pain to eat it when you're crowded on all sides by people. But not impossible.

He's putting the final touches on a chicken sandwich. Darjeeling

Fruit with sugar, salt, and spice

Various samosas and bread

Ok, not in the street. but a great snack. Aloo chat. Potato, onions, tomato, red onion, cilantro, masala, lime juice.

Lime and mint juice. Yum

Pani Puri. Bread filled with potatoes and other spicy goodness and dipped in tamarind juice. You eat in one gulp. 5 rupees for one.

Kati roll shop in Kolkata. Take a roti (like tortilla), coat in egg and fry, add whatever you want in the middle, roll it up.

Paneer and vegetable koti roll

Lime juice, sparkling soda, masala spice, salt, sugar. Can't remember the name.

self-explanatory goodness

Snacks on a train-samosa, a pepper battered and fried, some other fried goodness

Fried mashed potato balls, topped with light curry, onions, and chillies. Very yummy!!!

The above in a bowl. Wonderful comfort food

Chicken momos (Tibetan dumplings) with a dollop of spicy chilli sauce. These tasted like slow cooked chicken soup. In Jaisalmer.

The best part of the trip for me was taking a cooking lesson. I arranged it before we left and rather than pay the extra to have the woman's husband collect me, we went by metro and of course, had no clue how to find the place. But several people helped us and we finally found the apartment. Fahreen and her husband live in a modest two bedroom apartment with their young son (who is the cutest). They are venturing into the tourism business and cooking is one branch of the empire they are trying to build. I had chosen my menu items before hand and learned to make a snack of pakora and chai to drink and for dinner, chapatis (flatbread), biryani (rice, meat, and spices slow cooked together), an eggplant dish (bhaigan bharta). For three hours, I cut, diced, added spices, asked questions and was completely in the moment. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have because I was taking notes and Fahreen moves quickly. S played Angry Birds with the son. Afterwards, we enjoyed a feast.